FG Loses N11.4trn To Terrorism War, Tax Evasion – EFCC Boss
BY EDMOND ODOK – The Federal Government has in the last 13 years lost a whopping N11.4 trillion to the war on terrorism and tax evasion by multinational corporations operating in the country.
Available statistics indicate that while over N6 trillion has been invested in the war against terrorism since 2008, about N5.4 trillion is the huge financial loss recorded by the government between 2011 and 2021 due to tax evasion and other sharp practices by multinational corporations in Nigeria.
Chairman of Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Abdulrasheed Bawa, who made the startling revelation on Friday, said the losses are aside from the unchecked theft of resources in the nation’s oil and gas sector.
Presenting a paper titled, ‘Combating Crime, Corruption and implication for Development and Security,’ at the 38th Cambridge International Symposium on Economic Crime, organised by the Centre for International Documentation on Organised and Economic Crime, Jesus College, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom, the EFCC boss said the lost resources could have been useful in supporting Nigeria’s development efforts
Bawa, represented at the event by his Deputy Chief of Staff, Sambo Mayana, said between his assuming duties in March 2021 and August 2021, the Commission has made huge recoveries of over N6 billion from financial and economic saboteurs.
The EFCC boss’s disclosure was captured by the anti-graft agency’s spokesman, Wilson Uwujaren, in a statement titled; ‘In UK, Bawa calls on world leaders to rise to the challenge of fighting corruption’, adding that existing records also showed records show the EFCC recorded over 3,408 convictions as at August 2021.
“From the time I took over as the Executive Chairman, on the 5th of March 2021, we have recovered over N6bn; over $161m; over £13,000; €1,730, 200 Canadian dollars; CFA 373,000; ¥8,430 and 30 real estates. We have arrested over 1,500 Internet fraudsters, many of whom are being prosecuted,” he said.
Referring to a report by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Bawa lamented that resources meant to support countries’ development are readily lost through corruption, money laundering, tax evasion, and other criminal acts.
According to Bawa; “The spoiler effects on countries’ development processes are diverse and particularly severe for fragile states: economic crime, including illicit financial flows, diverts much-needed resources needed to rebuild countries’ public services, from security and justice to basic social services such as health and education.”
Bawa blamed pervasive economic crimes for the poor welfare conditions and lack of significant improvement in the lives of African people as well as those in other developing countries despite their immense natural resources endowment
The EFCC spokesman further quoted the Chairman as saying; “The incidence of illegal mining, smuggling of goods, tax evasion, illegal oil bunkering, illegal arms deals to mention a few does not allow the government to receive the full accruals from the continent’s vast resources that are needed for development.”
He said the revenue generated is embezzled by government officials and their collaborators in the private sector, adding; “This does not allow for economic growth and by extension a hindrance to development.”
