The Committee for the Defense of Human Rights (CDHR) staged an Anti-Corruption Rally in Lagos today. The group marched from Ikeja to the Lagos State Governor's office, Alausa secretariat with notable activists from across the country.
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A statement by the National Publicity Secretary Rasheed Raji Ropo said that since 1999, when the country returned to democratic rule, the country has remained plagued by corruption and gross misrule. Public officials resulted to milking the country dry, and poverty and deprivation remain at all time high. The country produces at least 2 million barrels of oil per day, but the citizens remain poor living on less than 1 dollar per day.
While speaking at the rally, the group’s National President Malarchy Uwguwumadu said that all the looters must be jailed so that it will serve as a deterrent to others.
Other attendees said that the recovered looted funds could fix Nigeria’s electricity challenges and provide basic amenities for citizens across the country. Other groups represented include the Academic Staff Union of University ASUU by Lagos State branch, the Nigeria Labour Congress Lagos State Council, the Federation of Informal Workers, JODA, DSM, NATA and others.
The amount of money looted and misappropriated by public officials runs into the trillions of naira, which is more than enough to provide first class hospital across the country, meet the UNESCO 26 percent budget allocation benchmark for education, establish new production lines to generate youth employment.
CDHR stated that civil society must develop unrestrained contempt for the looters and rapists of Nigeria’s collective destiny and force legal institutions to hole them to account.