Despite high level of religious activities, corruption persists – EFCC

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has lamented that despite the high level of religious activities across the country, the level of corruption in the country among Nigerians remains very high.

It also said that this is despite the volume of preaching in both churches and mosques.

Secretary of the commission, George Ekpungu, spoke at the 4th edition of National Youth and Students Annual Summit on Anti-corruption and Drug Abuse, held in Abuja, yesterday.

He said the agency would soon launch a religious anti-corruption manual for both Christians and Muslims.

The EFCC’s chief scribe in his goodwill message read by ACP Chris Ogbuka said: “Simply said, the problem with us is insincerity. Nigerians are very religious, but there is a whole lot of difference between being religious and being Godly. We will continue that way until we get it right. EFCC is preparing for something very soon, which is the launch of a religious anti-corruption manual for Christians and Muslims. We have realised that both the Bible and the Koran have anti-corruption messages in them.

“But, why is it that all that have been preached by both religions over the years have not fully impacted on the lives of Nigerians? We are actually deceiving ourselves and until what is preached in the mosques and churches are reflected in our lives, we are just beating about the bush,” he stated.

Ekpungu said it was important that Nigerians changed their attitude to crime even as he called for rigourous campaigns to steer away young people from committing crimes.

“We must have to change our attitudes. We need a rigorous campaign through public enlightenment programmes to interface with the public on our attitudes towards corruption. The EFCC has taken up the campaigns through many social media platforms. Until young students refused to be peer-pressured into indulging in committing crimes or certain habits they are not supposed to go into, it may continue.

“As for the agency, I will say that we are not full proof against corruption. I am not going to claim that we don’t have bad eggs. However, one thing I want to assure you is that EFCC has internal mechanism of fighting corruption within itself. We have what we call internal Affairs Department,” he added.