The Executive Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Abdulrasheed Bawa on Tuesday, June 22, 2021, reiterated the commission’s resolve to work with the National Lottery Trust Fund, NLTF, in combatting corruption in the lottery industry.
A statement signed by EFCC’s Head, Media and Publicity, Wilson Uwujaren, said that while speaking through his Director of Operations, Abdulkarim Chukkol, Bawa stated this when the Executive Secretary o the NLTF, Dr. Bello Maigari, paid him a courtesy visit at the commission’s headquarters, Jabi Abuja.
Maigari had earlier called on the EFCC to play a role in the recovery of statutory remittances due to the industry, decrying the nonchalant attitude of licensed lottery and gaming companies in fulfilling their obligations to government, which according to him has put intervention programmes of the Trust Fund at risk.
Calling therefore on the EFCC to help recover the huge lottery and gaming revenues illegally held by Value Added Services operators, Maigari vowed that NLTF, “will do everything humanly possible to safeguard lottery as a national asset and will continue to support the work of the EFCC to achieve success for the good of the nation.”
He also appealed to the EFCC to establish a desk to help address some of the challenges confronting stakeholders in the industry.
The EFCC Chairman,in his response, reiterated the commission’s resolve to work with relevant stakeholders to recover revenue due to the industry.
He said, “Some of the issues you raised I must say are very worrisome; the EFCC has never shied away from doing our work, most especially when it comes to economic crimes, we will try as much as we can to work with major stakeholders to address those issues.
“When we came onboard, this was one of the first things that we actually looked at, lottery and tax; and we have a team that actually deal with that. Recently we designated an officer who handles this kind of issue, and presently we are doing a review of some of those cases.”
Bawa stressed that aside from looking at revenue losses, “we are also not unmindful of the fact that lottery component are being used as avenues for money laundering; so, we are looking at the criminality aspect.”
The anti-graft agency hoss promised to expand the commission’s desk because the EFCC has the mandate and will pursue it diligently.
He added, “We are willing to expand our desk office to three or four people, because it is our mandate, we are not shying away from doing these things.”
