EFCC’s Director of Operations, Abdulkarim Chukkol, stated
this when the Executive Secretary, National Lottery Trust Fund, Dr Bello
Maigari paid him a courtesy visit at the Commission’s headquarters, Jabi Abuja.
In his remarks, Maigari called on the EFCC to play a role in
the recovery of statutory remittances due to the industry.
He decried the nonchalant attitude of licensed lottery and
gaming companies in fulfilling their obligations to the government which according
to him has put intervention programmes of the Trust Fund at risk.
Thereafter, he called 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.”
However, he appealed to the EFCC to establish a desk to help
address some of the challenges confronting stakeholders in the industry.
Responding, the EFCC Chairman reiterated the Commission’s
resolve to work with relevant stakeholders to recover revenue due to the
industry.
“Some of the issues you raised I must say that they 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 on board, this was one of the first things
that we looked at, Lottery and tax; and we have a team that deals 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,” the EFCC
boss said.
Bawa stressed that aside from looking at revenue losses, “We
are also not unmindful of the fact that lottery component is being used as
avenues for money laundering; so, we are looking at the criminality aspect.”
The chairman promised to expand the Commission’s desk
because the EFCC has the mandate and will pursue it diligently.
“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,” he assured.