The confession by the Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission that the case of 31 formers Governors are missing or distorted and that there is no petition against the former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo is a well calculated conspiracy and a subterfuge to sweep under the carpet hideous cases of corrupt and graft against these people.
The confession by the Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission that the case of 31 formers Governors are missing or distorted and that there is no petition against the former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo is a well calculated conspiracy and a subterfuge to sweep under the carpet hideous cases of corrupt and graft against these people. It is plain that the visionless and bankrupt elite whose waywardness and thieving has made the country a laughing stock in the comity of nations have conspired again to set free those whose are responsible for the large scale of plundering and pilfering of national patrimony that took place during the wasted years of Obasanjo Presidency.
It is regrettable that those who are entrusted with the responsibility for law enforcement are in the vanguard of the campaign to undermine the gains made by Nuhu Ribadu in the fight against corruption which has been institutionalised by these bandits in public office. It rankles to hear that these former Governors who mindlessly and recklessly looted their States have no cases to answer when we know that numerous cases of graft, stealing, money laundering and corruption were reported against them by patriotic Nigerians who are convulsed by corruption that has brought the country to the nadir. How can the Chairman of EFCC, Mrs. Farida Waziri say that a former Governor like Donald Duke has no case file in the vault of EFCC? What has become of the case files of 31 former State Governors that Nuhu Ribadu told a startled Nation in 2006 while addressing the Senate that investigations had been concluded. What the Petition that was filed against Chief Olusegun Obasanjo by a Coalition of NGOS in the Country?
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What of the Report of the House of Representatives Committee which indicted Chief Olusegun Obasanjo and Governors Olusegun Agagu and Liyel Imoke for the grand scale of looting in the Power Sector that saw the squandering of a huge $ 16 Billion budgeted for building of Power Plants in the Country? What has become of the numerous petitions against Donald Duke filed by the Transparency in Nigeria, Cross River Chapter and the Cross River Movement for Justice which had been acknowledged by EFCC? What of the petition against Donald Duke for buying the residence of the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court in Ikoyi for N500 Million while in office as Governor in March 2006? What of the Petition against Donald Duke for illegal deduction of allocations from the Federation Accounts to Local Government Councils in Cross River State running into billions of Naira?
What of the Petition against Donald Duke for collecting loans amounting to more than N150 Billion for so-called investment in Tinapa Business Resort which has turned out to be a big fraud and a white elephant project? It is clear that the EFCC has presently constituted is incapable of fighting corruption in the country. An example is the refusal of the Chairman, Farida Waziri to present the statutory report which she is mandated to present before the Senate every 30th September. There can be no doubt that the EFCC has been so thoroughly compromised that nothing good will come out of it. We therefore call for the scrapping of the EFCC and the release of all prisoners in the country. It is wrong and an egregious injustice for us to have in jail those who are said to have stolen N2, 000 (as the case may be , while those that have stolen billions are walking the streets . What kind of legal system would have two standards for treating those who have transgressed the law? Okoi Obono-Obla * Obono-Obla is a Barrister and Human Rights Activist. He is the Secretary General of Transparency in Nigeria, Cross River Chapter and Cross River Movement for Justice.
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