Coronavirus is caused by corruption – EFCC Boss, Magu

The Acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Ibrahim Magu, during the passing out parade of 281 cadets of the EFCC Detective Inspector Course-5, at the Nigerian Defence Academy, Kaduna, on Tuesday said he strongly believes coronavirus is caused by corruption.

Magu said “Corruption is the biggest strategy to human kind. Your excellency, corruption is worse than all the diseases now running about.

“And I strongly believe, Your Excellency, that even the coronavirus is caused by corruption,” Mr Magu said.

Coronavirus, officially named COVID-19, broke out in Wuhan in Hubei province of China in December last year.

The disease has infected over 1716 medical workers in China alone and over 73,000 infected persons in 25 countries, causing not less than 1,875 deaths. Majority of the deaths are in Wuhan.

The exact cause of the disease has not been determined, neither has a cure been found.

Mr Magu described the fight against corruption as a crusade against the evils in the society.

“Fighting corruption is thus a crusade against the evils of our society that are deeply rooted and threatening to consume us.

“We are aware of the task is not easy and the path can be very thorny and lonely, but with determination and a high sense of mission, we are making a progress towards rooting out this evil from our society

“As part of vigorous pursuit, the commission has created new specialised directorate and section taking into cognisance the changing phase of criminality,” he said.

“This directorate includes asset forfeiture and recovery management directorate, forensic and science laboratory directorate, anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism section.

“As at 2015, we had 103 convictions, in 2016,195 convictions, 314 in 2018, over 1218 convictions were secured in 2019,” he said.