by Lekan Olanrewaju

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has delivered a warning to civil servants.

Chairman of the EFCC, Mr Ibrahim Lamorde, while speaking at the 4th national retreat on ethics and transparency for civil servants in Lagos warned all public servants in the country to desist from any corrupt practices, lest they face the mighty hand of the law.

“EFCC is using the forum provided by this retreat to serve notice to all public servants at all levels of government that we will come after you if you compromise your positions and engage in fraudulent or corrupt practices,” he said.

“In those days if you wanted a job done efficiently, especially for the benefit of the citizenry, the Nigerian civil service could be trusted to creditably carry out the job,” he continued, lamenting on the current state of the civil service. “Today, the reverse is the case.”

“To bring about the economic transformation of Nigeria, public servants must act ethically at all times in the discharge of their roles. No nation has ever developed or can sustain its development without a vibrant and credible public service.”

He also went on to blame poverty and unemployment on the discreditable acts of public servants, saying: “It is because some public servants failed to act creditably that poverty prevails in the land and millions of young men and women who are graduates continue to roam our streets in search of elusive jobs.”

“The epileptic power supply, the near-total decay of infrastructures in the country from our roads, pipe-borne water, schools and hospitals, are all the consequence of the failure to act creditably.”