The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has debunked reports that its acting chairman, Ibrahim Magu, said coronavirus is caused by corruption, despite being seen in a viral video making the comment.

The EFCC on Tuesday described the report as “false and misleading”.

Magu while delivering his speech at the passing out parade of 281 cadets of the EFCC Detective Inspector Course-5 in Kaduna on Tuesday, tied the cause of coronavirus to corruption.

He said:

“The EFCC is not satisfied with just prosecuting and jailing the fraudsters, rather the commission has concluded plans to reform them in collaboration with relevant government agencies towards making them better citizens.

“EFCC has zero tolerance for corruption as our mandate is to kill corruption as corruption is worse than all the diseases we have now and I strongly believe coronavirus is caused by corruption.”

Reacting to the report, the EFCC via its Twitter handle quoted a tweet by TheCable and wrote:

“This information is false and misleading. The Acting Chairman said, “Tackling corruption is a clarion call, given that corruption is a huge burden to the nation. It is worse than Cancer, Ebola Virus, Coronavirus and all other deadly diseases put together.”

“Correct this, please!” EFCC told the news platform.

TheCable reacted to the tweet by posting the video where Magu made the statement in the comment section of the tweet.

 

See EFCC’s tweet:

 

This information is false and misleading.

The Acting Chairman said, “Tackling corruption is a clarion call, given that corruption is a huge burden to the nation. It is worse than Cancer, Ebola Virus, Coronavirus and all other deadly diseases put together.”

Correct this, please! https://t.co/pJgmGsZain

— EFCC Nigeria (@officialEFCC) February 18, 2020