Canada Partners Nigeria On Anti-Corruption Fight

The Canadian government says it working to partner with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on the war against corruption.

In a statement issued by Wilson Uwujaren, EFCC spokesman, on Wednesday, the aim of the collaboration is the exchange of relevant information between the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and the anti-graft agency.

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According to the statement, the High Commissioner of Canada, Christopher Thornley, made the disclosure during a courtesy visit to the EFCC headquarters in Abuja on Tuesday.

“The Canadian government wants to better represent itself in the global fight against corruption via the EFCC platform, and this visit stems from the need to explore the possibility of opening a RCMP post in Nigeria,” he said.

“We will very much like to include EFCC, for its commendable efforts that has contributed to the drop in the corruption index for Nigeria.”

Thornley was accompanied by Eric Slinn, the RCMP regional manager, and Stephane Cadieux, RCMP liaison officer for West Africa.

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While expressing gratitude for the new initiative, Ibrahim Magu, acting EFCC Chairman, described the assignments of the RCMP and the EFCC, as very tough and challenging.

“We are more poised ever than before to surmount all challenges,” he said, and recalled that the EFCC had requested for technical support in 2012.

“We have good working relationship with RCMP over the years as since then 15 officers have been sent by the Commission to Canada to attend various trainings at the Canadian Police College, CPC, Ottawa, Canada,” he said.

Magu further stated that a draft template for memorandum of understanding between both agencies had been developed to fast track the process, which will later be forwarded to the ministry of justice for approval.

“We were delighted to receive RCMP delegation who trained EFCC staff in conjunction with other sister law enforcement agencies in Nigeria, in September 2014 at the EFCC training academy, Karu,” the EFCC boss added.

 

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