The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC has described the EFCC-NYSC Community Development Services, CDS, as an integral social agent in the fight against corruption and internet fraud.
This was disclosed by the Director, Public Affairs Directorate of the Commission, Commander of the EFCC, CE Wilson Uwujaren while receiving the EFCC-NYSC CDS Group at the Commission’s headquarters, Abuja.
Uwujaren charged the corps members to uphold the core values of the Commission in their CDS Group and be conversant with the mandate of the EFCC by carrying out the sensitization and reorientation aspect of the mandate in tackling the menace of corruption in society.
“You are like our mouthpiece out there now. We believe that you are very important to us in this engagement that we are in, especially for us in the Public Affairs arm of the EFCC. For you to be able to engage adequately, you have to be conversant with what we are doing at the EFCC. We are going to use this opportunity to encourage all of you,” he said.
Uwujaren further charged the corps members to take responsibility and own the fight against graft, adding that they are the EFCC’s ambassadors, who must uphold the core values of the Commission. “Being a part of the EFCC group also comes with a responsibility on your part. When you talk about core values, we are talking about integrity and transparency, and those attributes must manifest in your conduct with your colleagues within the NYSC when you go out to engage members of the Community, they should
be able to see those virtues in you to convince them that you are also part of the work the Commission is doing.
Assuring the corps members of the Commission’s support, the EFCC Director said, “Whatever resource material we have, when you go out to talk to market women and school children, we will provide those materials for you. And if you have any special project either at individual levels or collectively that you want to execute, you can come up with your proposal and we will support whatever it is in a way that we can,” he said.
Speaking on the mandate of the EFCC, the Head, of the Enlightenment and Reorientation Unit of The EFCC, Aisha Muhammed stated that the EFCC investigates, prosecutes and sensitizes the public on the dangers of corruption and cybercrimes.
“These are the three core mandates of the EFCC and advocacy is one of them. We go out to enlighten people and talk to them. We have the Integrity Clubs in primary and secondary schools, we have the Zero Tolerance Clubs in the universities and then we have the NYSC CDS Group. We go out to talk to people at markets places, motor parks, we collaborate with civil society organizations, we do inter-agency collaboration because EFCC cannot do it alone and we can’t be everywhere, so we tend to have everybody on our page and just like my boss said, you are our foot soldiers and you are expected to spread this anti-corruption message,” she said.
On the sensitization works of the corps members, she explained that “what you need is just to tell people to desist from corruption, we all know what corruption does, we can see the effect of corruption in schools and its effects, even this ‘Japa’ syndrome is a result of corruption. Every youth wants to leave all because of corruption”.
Earlier in his remark, the President of the EFCC-NYSC CDS group, Abidemi Akinwande, said his group was desirous of identifying with the EFCC and playing its part in the fight against corruption as individuals and groups.
“We want to tell people about what exactly the EFCC is all about, we have people that are not learned, people that didn’t go to school, so we have a plan of going to marketplaces, motor parks and the rural areas with flyers preaching against corruption, and suggesting to them how we can curb corruption. We are interested in letting the people know what exactly corruption is all about and how we can grow as a community and as a nation,” she said.
