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EFCC Acknowledges Corruption At IDPs Camp, Promises Transparency

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in Nigeria, has assured the World Food Programme (WFP) of its support to ensure transparency in the administration of … Continue reading EFCC Acknowledges Corruption At IDPs Camp, Promises Transparency


IDPs, Bama, Humanitarians, Borno
EFCC, Senate, Magu
Ibrahim Magu of the EFCC

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in Nigeria, has assured the World Food Programme (WFP) of its support to ensure transparency in the administration of relief materials to Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in the northeast.

The commission’s acting Chairman, Mr Ibrahim Magu, pledged the anti-graft agency’s support on Friday in Abuja.

A statement by the agency’s spokesman, Mr Wilson Uwujaren, said the commission’s boss also acknowledged evidence of corruption at the IDPs camp in Maiduguri.

Mr Magu said the Commission would dedicate a desk for the WFP in order to facilitate unhindered administration of its intervention efforts.

Cash Transfer

Earlier, the Assistant Executive Director of the WFP, Roberto DaSilva, had urged the EFCC to ensure transparency, credibility and accountability in the disbursement of funds and purchase of food items to the northeast.

Silva, who led a delegation on a courtesy visit to Magu in Abuja, said: “The Programme focuses on food assistance with humanitarian and social objectives.

“We were in the process of identifying where the World Food Programme presence could support Nigeria, but the situation in the North-East of Nigeria changed our plans. However, we are back now”.

He added that the Programmes was targeted at over 700,000 individuals, including 20, 000 children.

According to him, “as a result of the commitment we have undertaken, we are introducing a series of food assistance, one of them is where a financial transfer takes place to enable them buy food or where we admit any need for assistance in purchase of food.

“We will be disbursing millions of dollars to Nigeria. Half of it will be a cash transfer and the other half is to purchase food items for the two states: Borno and Yobe. It is on this note that we have reached out to the EFCC”.

Silva, who stated that the collaboration between the EFCC and the WFP would ensure the prevention of fraud, added that “there is a need to scale-up and maintain integrity so that more work can be achieved.

“Our expectation is that we establish a Memorandum of Understanding that clearly outlines how we can cooperate together to ensure integrity and deter fraud from happening”.

He disclosed that offices had been set up in Abuja and Maiduguri “with hopes of bringing in 80 to 100 professionals from Nigeria to run the offices in Borno and Yobe”.

Malnutrition-in-northeast-Nigeria-Unicef

The United Nations had raised concerns of acute malnutrition in the northeast ravaged by over six years of insurgency perpetrated by Boko Haram terrorists.

UNICEF said it feared 49,000 children, pregnant women and nursing mothers may die before the end of 2016 if nothing was done to remedy the already dire situation.

The agency had called for more nutritious food and community mobilisers that would go from door to door in the affected region to get the affected children to places they could be treated are some of the aid UNICEF said would help address the situation triggered by Boko Haram insurgency.

‘Skin Over Bones’

The Chief Nutrition Section of UNICEF Nigeria, Arjan De Wagt, told Channels Television that aid to the malnourished children had been hampered by insecurity in the region.

Arjan-De-Wagt
Arjan De Wagt believes there is still hope for the severely malnourished children if aid would come fast

According to him, 240,000 children are severely malnourished with their ‘skin over their bones’.

“They are so severely malnourished that if nothing is being done they are at a very high risk of dying.

“About one out of five of these children will die if they don’t receive these special support that they need,” he stated.

Mr Wagt said a total of 49,000 persons, including some pregnant and nursing mothers, could die before the end of the year.