EFCC should not be scrapped – Fintiri

The Governor of Adamawa State, Ahmadu Fintiri, has said that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission should not be scrapped but rather strengthened for better efficiency.

This came in response to a suit filed at the Supreme Court by 16 state governors challenging the legality of the laws establishing the commission.

In an interview on Channels TV’s Hard Copy programme on Friday, Fintiri stated, “For me, it is not the right time to abolish the EFCC, whether it was established rightly or wrongly. We need to make it work better. We need to remove the politics that sometimes leads to claims of witch-hunting.”

He also criticised the practice of the federal government taking custody of funds seized from state fund embezzlement, calling it “a wrong practice.”

“I heard the Attorney General of Oyo State complaining after a court session that, even though funds are shared among the three tiers of government, federal, state, and local, the Federal Government often oversteps by questioning how states and local governments spend their money.

“Even when funds are appropriated, the Federal Government takes it into their treasury. I believe this practice should be discontinued,” he added.

Earlier, the governor mentioned that he would decide whether to join the suit after reviewing it with his Attorney General.