Canada seeks partnership with EFCC on war against corruption

The Canadian government has sought partnership with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) with the aim of expanding inter-agency collaboration and exchange of information between the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and the anti-graft agency. 

According to a statement issued by Wilson Uwujaren, EFCC spokesman, on Wednesday, Christopher Thornley, high commissioner of Canada to Nigeria, made this known during a visit to the EFCC headquarters on Tuesday.

“The Canadian government wants to better represent itself in the global fight against corruption via the EFCC platform, and this visit stems from the need to explore the possibility of opening a RCMP post in Nigeria,” he said.

Thornley, who was accompanied by Eric Slinn, the RCMP regional manager, and Stephane Cadieux, RCMP liaison officer for West Africa, further explained that the Canadian government had liaison offices across the globe, and “we will very much like to include EFCC, for its commendable efforts that has contributed to the drop in the corruption index for Nigeria”.

Ibrahim Magu, acting EFCC Chairman, while expressing the resolve to collaborate with the Canadian government in strengthening the fight against corruption, described the assignments of the RCMP and the EFCC, as “very tough, overwhelming and challenging”.

“We are more poised ever than before to surmount all challenges,” he said, and recalled that the EFCC had requested for technical support in 2012.

“We have good working relationship with RCMP over the years as since then 15 officers have been sent by the Commission to Canada to attend various trainings at the Canadian Police College, CPC, Ottawa, Canada,” he said.

He told the delegation that a draft template for memorandum of understanding between both agencies had been developed to fast track the process, which will later be forwarded to the ministry of justice for approval.

“We were delighted to receive RCMP delegation who trained EFCC staff in conjunction with other sister law enforcement agencies in Nigeria, in September 2014 at the EFCC training academy, Karu,” he said.