TheCable

Ibrahim Magu, acting chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), says some persons are bagging sand as fertiliser under the anchor borrowers’ programme coordinated by the Central Bank of Nigeria.

Speaking at the 15th anti-corruption situation room organised by the Human and Environmental Development Agenda (HEDA) in Kaduna, on Tuesday, the EFCC chief, who was represented by Wilson Uwujaren, spokesman of the commission, said they have received reports of incidents of corruption under the programme.

“The crisis in Nigeria today boils down to corruption. The EFCC is doing everything possible to ensure that stolen resources are recovered and returned,” he said.

“Civil society organisations need to play more active role. We want to ensure that we don’t create more crisis from a crisis situation. In the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme, there are people who are bagging sand instead of fertiliser.”

The borrowers’ programme is one of the social schemes initiated by the federal government to boost productivity and to alleviate the suffering of citizens.

In January, TheCable reported on alleged fraud in the N-Power scheme — a social intervention initiative — detailing how beneficiaries connive with officials to abscond from duty.

Two beneficiaries were jailed after the EFCC arraigned them for fraud, and more than 2,500 beneficiaries have been removed from the scheme for dereliction of duty.