The Nation Newspaper

Tag: corruption

  • On corruption and capital punishment

    SIR: As their own contribution to support President Muhammadu Buhari’s anti-corruption war, the president of the Nigeria Labour Congress, Comrade Ayuba Wabba and his counterpart in the Trade Union Congress, Comrade Bobboi Kaigama jointly called for capital punishment for anybody found guilty of corruption in Nigeria.

    In the old Roman Empire and Greece, it was one way of dealing with criminals and offenders. Some religious organisations also saw it as a method of eliminating anybody who was opposed to the teaching of the organisation. Now, Rome and Greece no longer practice this method.

    Meanwhile, the use of death penalty in Nigeria has generated mixed opinions among people in the society. Some people find this form of punishment as a tool which violates the human rights to live which is considered as a fundamental human right.

    Although, corruption has grown so deep in Nigeria that it has become a culture of government. But, what benefit can a nation get from the implementation of capital punishment? What does the victim of murder gain when the convict is killed? These are the questions which need to be addressed by the death penalty proponents.

    Some who want capital punishment say that killing the offender will bring pain to bear on him or her. But, is it really true that somebody killed by bullet feels any pain? It is doubtful.

    In the same vein, it is a kind of punishment that does not deter or discourage others who might want to commit the same offence. Honestly, once a criminal knows that the moment he or she is caught, only one bullet will silence him or her, such a person will become hardened.

    Until the major causes of corruption are addressed, capital punishment will not in any significant way enhance the anti-corruption war nor reduce the tendency to loot public treasury.

    • Sunday Ogunkuade,

    Ogbomoso.

  • Corruption: ICPC to assess Lagos, Abuja airports

    Corruption: ICPC to assess Lagos, Abuja airports

    TO stamp corruption among airport workers, the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences  Commission ( ICPC) has announced plans to begin corruption assessment in the Lagos and Abuja airports.

    According to the Chairman of the anti-graft agency, Ekpo Nta, the assessment is part of efforts to eliminate corruption among aviation personnel.

    Represented by a member of the ICPC Board, Isa  Salami, he said the exercise was part of efforts to drive the Memorandum of Understanding ( MoU), signed between the agency and the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) last year.

    He said the choice of Lagos and Abuja airports was strategic as major gateways into the country, where  corrupt practices should be reduced or eliminated to foster a good image for the country .

    Speaking during a courtesy visit to FAAN  headquarters, the ICPC said it is collaborating with aviation agencies and airport stakeholders to eliminate misdeeds at airports which can easily ruin the image of the country.

    He said the ICPC was carrying out a study on corruption around the airports by tackling it from the roots and not the branches.

    The anti-corruption drive, he said, would look at the processes, laws and procedures that encourage corruption from the grassroots.

    He added that the exercise was not a witch-hunt, but meant to block loopholes in FAAN to remind its officials of the commitment it entered with the authority by sending its officials to swoop in on FAAN to see how its laws, procedures and regulations as well as documentation impacts on corrupt tendencies and how to improve it.

    He said the ICPC would continue to carry out  corruption assessment on the standards’procedures of FAAN to see areas of vulnerability to sharp practices.

    He urged FAAN to cooperate to enable the ICPC implement an integrity plan.

    FAAN Managing Director, Saleh Dunoma, who was represented by the Director of Administration, Ikechi Uko, assured of the agency’s cooperation to stamp out corruption from the airports.

    He said FAAN was commited to the implementation of the deal it signed with ICPC to eliminate corruption.

     

  • Lawyer backs special court for corruption

    Lawyer backs special court for corruption

    Lagos lawyer, Babatunde Fashanu (SAN),  has thrown his weight behind the move by the Federal Government to establish special courts in the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) to try corruption cases.

    Reacting to the development, Fashanu told journalists last week in Lagos that the move was welcome, addingthat it would help President Muhammadu Buhari in his anti-corruption fight.

    He, however, advised that the government should select  judges who are fearless and well associated with the judicial system by virtue of long law practice, noting that the following criteria be added to the screening process if not already.

    He said: “It is heart-warming to learn that the anti corruption panel is planning with President Muhammadu Buhari  to set up special anti corruption courts throughout the Federation and are screening judges for the courts.

    “It is not surprising, however, to learn that many judges are failing the test. I humbly suggest as someone well associated with the judicial system by virtue of my long law practice that the following criteria be added to the screening process if not already:

    “Judge must not be living beyond his means which can easily be checked against his salaries and entitlements and lifelong earnings, legacies benefits and investments along with that of his immediate family; avoid lazy Judges who find it difficult to sit in court promptly and are late in delivering judgments and rulings; Judge must be bold and fearless in his conduct of cases and delivery of judgments no matter whose ox is gored, however, not one sided and overbearing having regard to protective provisions as to fair hearing for the accused in the Nigerian Constitution and that a Judge should have some experience of handling criminal cases either on the bench or as counsel (for prosecution or defence) to ensure that he doesn’t have to start learning the practical aspects of criminal law and procedures in the special court which will open him to bamboozling by well oiled SANs or smart defence counsel”, he stated.

    Fashanu also canvassed  extra security arrangements for judges who will sit over such corruption cases.

    “Having said that, extra arrangements should be made for the security of the judges and their families in terms of their safety and monetary convenience having regard to the potential danger and temptation they face trying very rich and powerful people.

    “Arrangements must also be made to ensure that they are thoroughly independent of the executive arm of government by including provisions as to their safety, emoluments and security of tenure in the law setting up the courts, to draw their funds directly from a consolidated source”, Fashanu said.

    He urged the anti-corruption committee to work on how to keep the judges in check without stepping on their space of independence adding: “it might be a tough one but I’m sure the committee is equal to the task having regard to its composition.”

     

  • As workers march against corruption

    The recent self-serving leadership crisis that rocked the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) appears to have been reined-in by the realisation that there is a more sinister threat to the existence of our country, under which canopy, the workers engage in labour. For without the sanctity of a nation, in its true sense, there can be no labour, talk less of a labour congress. Well, unless one will be willing to refer to acts of combat, in a failed state, like Syria, as a form of labour. Or even more tragically, the catering for the refugees, and the heart-rending human suffering, arising from the crisis.

    It is therefore hoped that this labour of love for country, exhibited by thousands of marchers across the 36 states of the federation, last week, Thursday, is not a transient publicity stunt, orchestrated by labour leaders. After all, the leadership of the congress may just have employed the match as an image stunt, to burnish their tattered image, after the NLC’S election fiasco, which showed the labour leaders as no different from other political power mongers, who have corruptly held our country down, for decades.

    But regardless of the motive of their leaders, members of the Trade Union Congress (TUC) and NLC, must realise that unless the civil society takes up the gauntlet, the war against corruption, may peter out even before it starts. As has been rightly observed, when you fight corruption, corruption fights back. And the corruptors will likely use all means, including the recruitment of labour leaders, to stall the recovery of the humongous loot in their possession. So, to help in the fight against corruption, the labour unions must first, put their houses in order, by eschewing similar malevolent corrupt practices within their ranks. They must develop the capacity to meaningfully engage the government, so that they are not lured into unnecessary strike actions that would aid those that prefer unstable governments, which can be manipulated.

    In fighting corruption, the Buhari administration should also seek ways to resolve the wage disputes and unfair labour practices, which also cause, many of the strike actions in Nigeria. Even a Buhari sympathiser, must accept and sympathise with the labour unions, considering the unfair wage paid to the average worker, which is particularly nauseating, when juxtaposed with the criminal enrichment by political office holders, in the name of legitimate income. So, I earnestly hope that part of the change agenda of President Buhari’s government, of course, with the concurrence of the majority of the state governments, would be to help set up a realistic wage structure, across the country.

    For me, it is a national folly that the legitimate income of any political office holder, would in many states be 500 per cent more than the income of a graduate teacher, who had reached the end of his career and is at the top of the salary scale. To understand the absurdity and incongruity of this malaise, juxtapose the salary of a school principal, or supervisor of education, who earn less than one hundred and N50,000 a month, with that of a senator who earn about N9million monthly, under various dubious headings. Well, if the senator should be considered a super politician, compare the salary of the school principal, or head teacher, with the councillor at the local government.

    So, the labour unions and its affiliate always have a worthy reason to go on strike. And perennial strikes become inevitable, when in addition to humongous income dubiously earned by the politicians, the system allows them to also freely engage in monumental corrupt enrichment. That is why the fight against corruption, is at the root of solving so many other challenges, facing our backward country. Indeed, if corruption is reigned in, inflation will drastically reduce, and the paltry wage of the Nigerian worker would have an improved weight, and enhanced purchasing power.

    Part of the process of resolving this national wage quagmire, as has been argued some time ago, on this page, is to federalise wages and income. But such a move will be counterproductive, unless corruption is reigned in, as many state governors would literary gulp the entire resources, and go ahead to pay their workers menial wages. To deal with this challenge, it is imperative that aggravated corruption is made a federal offence, with stringent penalty. This is perhaps, the import of the decision of the Supreme Court, when it held that the Act establishing the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, is not unconstitutional (anti-federal).

    If corruption is drastically reduced, and a comprehensive wage structure across the economic and political strata of the country is determined, and every person regardless of stature, is compelled to live on his wage, sanity would return. Of course, the wage structure of the political office holders, like the legislators, would never be, at the whims and caprices of the beneficiaries, as is tragically the situation presently, albeit unconstitutionally. Indeed, a lesser paid legislator, will be more efficient, when he realises that a healthy life for him, will really be dependent, on an efficient national infrastructure, which can only be possible, through efficient laws and quality oversight functions.

    Luckily, the Trade Unions have the powers to reign in some of the excesses of our politicians. One such power, is through peaceful picketing. For instance, the NLC and the TUC can picket the National Assembly, to compel for a fair national wage, which would involve reducing the misguided appropriations that aid corruption. Through picketing, they can compel the law enforcement agencies, to fight corrupt practices. The Trade Unions can indeed mobilise, to help Nigeria, return to the part of sanity.

     

     

     

  • Judicial corruption: Why judges pay the price alone

    Judicial corruption: Why judges pay the price alone

    Perhaps, overwhelmed by deluge of accusations leveled against the Judicial Officers in the country, the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Mahmud Mohammed had on June 24, 2015 decided to use the opportunity offered by a seminar that was organised by the anti-corruption commission of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) to ‘’fire back’’ at some unintended targets.

    He said contrary to the much-talked about corruption in the Nigerian judiciary, only 64 out of the whole lots of 1,020 judges serving in the superior courts have so far been punished by the National Judicial Council (NJC) for various offences, especially on corruption between 2009 and 2014.

    Besides, the Bench cannot be clean if the Bar that gives birth to it is filthy. “Unless we work in synergy to ensure that only fit and proper persons remain in our midst, it will be impossible to expect a different Bench when its origin remains the same. I hereby call on the leadership of the Bar to expunge from its ranks such persons whose conduct may be unfit, improper, dishonest or unethical’’, the CJN thundered out.

    The CJN went further to say that it is rather curious that none of the beneficiaries of those involved in compromising standard of justice or buying and selling of judgements have ever been tried and punished by those in charge of criminal justice administration in the country.

    “It is, however, sad to note that the public officials and persons who benefit from corrupting Judicial Officers are never investigated, apprehended or even prosecuted, even though the Judiciary disciplines its own. The basic question, my lords, ladies and gentlemen is, how can we stop corruption when the scale is seemingly tilted in favour of the beneficiaries,’’ Justice Mohammed asked.

    The last quiver of the CJN’s arrows would remind the legal system historians of the pre-modern Europe when crime was viewed as a private matter in Ancient Greece and Rome. Even with offences as serious as murder, justice was the prerogative of the victim’s family and private war or vendetta the means of protection against criminality. Corruption in the judiciary cannot abate unless and until the Federal Government stops regarding such criminality as the family affair or private matter for the judiciary.

    According to the former CJN, Justice Mariam Aloma Mukthar, the judiciary doesn’t have a garrison of army to fight its cause or enforce its orders and decisions.  NJC, for instance, can only recommend disciplinary actions against erring judicial officers for approval and enforcement by the President. It cannot go further to levy charges against the judge for his or her criminal acts; neither could NJC prosecute the persons that bribed the judge for instance to balkanise cause of justice. The commission doesn’t have criminal investigation unit or ‘’Fraud Detective Squad’’ to detect and investigate criminal involvement of any judicial officer. It can only put the judge on trial if there is a petition filed against him or her, again, the trials are based mostly on documentary evidence which is hard to get.

    This is what put Justice Mahmud Mohammed’s 64 over 1020 percentage of corrupt judges in the judiciary to disrepute. Though this is not the focus of this discourse, but the fact remains that the CJN’s hypothesis on numerical strength of corrupt judges is not proportional to casualty figure of those that had suffered from rampart bad judgements, judiciary rot or indignity in Nigeria within the same period of time. This is not to disparage this revered jurist, but to deal with the obvious.

    Back to the thrust of this discussion, it is the duties of the state to detect, investigate, prosecute and apply appropriate punishment to serve as deterrent for criminal acts in any clime. None of those 64 judges sacked by the NJC was ever prosecuted; yet, the pronouncement of some of them led to blood shed or mini civil war in the country, especially those who were sacked for their pronouncements which led to the ignominious June 12, 1993 Presidential Election annulment by the then Military President Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida.  None of those that conspired with any of the 64 judges sacked by the commission for compromising the standard of justice was prosecuted and punished by the state in the country.

    Let us take a look at what obtains elsewhere. In 2008, two American judges, President Judge Mark Ciavarella and Senior Judge Michael Conahan, were accused of taking more than $2 million cash bribes from Robert Mericle, a private prison owner to hand young offenders’ maximum sentences in return for kickbacks amounting to millions of dollars. The scandal which was later dubbed as ‘’kids for cash’’ was revealed during disciplinary hearings over the conduct of another former Luzerne County judge, Anne H. Lokuta. Lokuta was brought before the Judicial Conduct Board of Pennsylvania (similar to NJC) in November 2006 to answer charges of using court workers to do her personal bidding, openly displaying bias against some attorneys arguing before her, and publicly berating staff to cause mental distress.

    The board ruled against Lokuta in November 2008 and she was removed from the bench. During the course of the disciplinary hearings, Lokuta accused then Judge Michael Conahan of bullying behavior and charged that he was behind a conspiracy to have her removed. Lokuta aided the federal investigation into the “kids for cash” scheme prior to the determination of the disciplinary board, and a stay order was issued in March 2009 by the state Supreme Court in light of the ongoing corruption investigations, halting Lokuta’s removal and the election that was to be held in May to replace her.

    The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Internal Revenue Service also investigated the two judges while probing practices in Luzerne County. The two judges were subsequently charged before the court. A federal grand jury in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania returned a 48-count indictment against Ciavarella and Conahan including racketeering, fraud, money laundering, extortion, bribery, and federal tax violations on September 9, 2009. By August 11, 2011, Mark Ciavarella was sentenced to 28 years of imprisonment and ordered to pay $1.2 million in restitution after he was found to be a ‘’figure head’’ in the conspiracy that saw thousands of children unjustly punished in the name of profit in the case that became known as ‘’kids for cash’’.   He is currently being held at the Federal Correctional Institution, Pekin, a federal prison in Illinois which holds minimum and medium security inmates. He is scheduled for release in 2035, when he will be 85 years old.

    On September 23, 2011, Senior Judge Michael Conahan was sentenced to 17 and one-half years in federal prison after pleading guilty to one count of racketeering conspiracy. He is currently being held at a minimum security facility at the Federal Correctional Complex, Coleman in Florida. He is scheduled for release in 2026, when he will be 74 years old.

    Robert Mericle, the prominent real estate developer who built the two juvenile facilities, pleaded guilty on September 3, 2009, to failing to disclose a felony, for not revealing to a grand jury that he had paid $2.1 million to Ciavarella and Conahan as a finder’s fee. As part of his plea, Mericle agreed to pay $2.15 million to fund local children’s health and welfare programs. Mericle faced up to three years in prison and a maximum $250,000 fine. On April 25, 2014, Robert Mericle was sentenced to serve one year in Federal Prison.

    On November 4, 2011, Powell was sentenced to 18 months in federal prison after pleading guilty to failing to report a felony and being an accessory to tax conspiracy. He was incarcerated at the Federal Prison Camp, Pensacola, a minimum security facility in Florida, and was released from a halfway house on April 16, 2013.

    Just as it is the fate of the judiciary in Nigeria presently, the systemic corruption led to the formation of the Operation Greylord, an investigation conducted jointly by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the IRS Criminal Investigation Division, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the Chicago Police Internal Affairs Division and the Illinois State Police into corruption in the judiciary of Cook County, Illinois (the Chicago jurisdiction). The FBI named the investigation “Operation Greylord” after the grey curly wigs of British judges.

    The three-and-half-year undercover operation took place in the 1980s. The first listening device ever placed in a judge’s chambers occurred in the undercover phase, when the narcotics court chambers of Judge Wayne Olson were bugged. To acquire evidence of corruption, agents obtained U.S. Department of Justice authorisation to present false court cases for the undercover agents/lawyers to fix in front of the corrupt judges

    A total of 92 people were indicted, including 17 judges, 48 lawyers, 10 deputy sheriffs, eight policemen, eight court officials, and state legislator James DeLeo. Of the 17 judges indicted in the trials, 15 were convicted.

    In 1994, a panel of enquiry, headed by respected late jurist, Justice Kayode Eso, found startling evidence of corruption among judicial officers. It recommended that 47 errant judges be sacked, among other far-reaching reforms. A review panel in 2002 under Justice Bolarinwa Babalakin was confronted with the mysterious disappearance of vital documents attached to the Eso panel report. Only six of the 47 indicted judges were eventually sacked. Irked by persistent reports of corruption, the NJC has tried in the past to act. It sacked a former chief judge of Plateau State and suspended a former CJ of Anambra State. Two other judges, Okechukwu Opene and D.A. Adeniji, were sacked for taking bribe on the matter of the senatorial election in Anambra State. Stanley Nnaji, an Enugu High Court judge, was penalised for assuming jurisdiction in a matter outside his state, as was Wilson Egbo-Egbo, who had allegedly been compromised during the Chris Ngige and Chris Uba imbroglio in Anambra State. A total of nine judges were retired in 2004 for granting suspicious ex parte motions. Five others were implicated in the 2003 Election Petition Tribunal in Akwa Ibom State.

    They adjudicated on the petition against the re-election of ex-Governor Victor Attah by Ime Umanah, former candidate of the defunct All Nigeria Peoples Party, ANPP, at the election. By the time the NJC concluded its job, Justices Matilda  Adamu, Christopher P. N. Senlong and Chief Magistrate James Isede had earned themselves dismissal from the judiciary; while two others, Justice D. T. Ahura and A. M. Elelegwu of the Customary Court of Appeal were recommended for suspension.

    The Federal Government, after approving the verdict of the council on the higher officers in February 2004, sent their case files to the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) for trial. Nothing has been heard about them at the ICPC end since then. Neither the judicial officers sanctioned by the NJC nor the beneficiaries of their felony have ever been convicted. Only the judges involved even get partially punished.

     

     

     

     

     

  • Stop glorifying corrupt leaders – Don tells Nigerians

    A professor of crop Physiology at the University of Ibadan (UI), Olabode Lucas has said to completely win the war on corruption, Nigerians must stop glorifying corrupt leaders.

    He also tasked President Muhammadu Buhari to ensure that History and civics education are re-introduced and taught in Nigeria at primary and secondary schools.

    According to him, glorification of corrupt leaders will only embolden the cancer of corrupt urging Nigerians to collectively fight and kill the cancer of corruption for Nigeria to get to the Promised Land.

    Professor Lucas stated this during a Book Launch/presentation to round-off his 70th Birthday celebration entitled “Snapshots on Some Nigerian and International Events” held at the University of Ibadan Hotels and Conference centre.

    “Nigeria will continue to wallow in its current parlous state if the present rate of corruption and financial malfeasance continues. We should not allow ethnic and other considerations to colour our attitude towards those who are making all of us, except themselves, very poor in the midst of plenty. They should be ostracized and not encouraged. Corruption is a cancer and it is gradually destroying our dear country. We need concerted efforts by all and sundry to destroy this cancer.”

    The Introduction of civics education, he noted, will make the Nigerian child understand the past and have a sense of place and vision for a good Nigeria.

    Professor Lucas who noted that civics education and history were needed to produce a critical soul stated that civics education was central to producing responsible and good citizens.

    Professor Lucas noted that it was a pity that that these beautiful subjects of history and civics are no longer taught in our primary and secondary schools adding that only a re-introduction of the subjects would ensure that Nigerian children to know their history and their place in Nigeria and the world.

    The publisher of the book, Dr O. Okilagwe lamented that Nigeria has no functional book policy and no nationally articulated policy in support of scholarly publishing for the Nigerian university system.

    Okilagwe called for the formulation of functional book policy adding that universities in Nigeria must establish integrated and self-sustaining publishing system like those in the UK and USA.

  • Buhari: why the war against corruption must go on

    Buhari: why the war against corruption must go on

    The President Muhammadu Buhari administration yesterday reiterated why there will be no let-up in its fight against corruption.

    “It is a fight for the soul and substance of our nation, a moral battle for virtue and righteousness in our land,” Vice President Yemi Osinbajo said yesterday.

    He spoke in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, during the second plenary meeting of Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria (CBCN).

    The ceremony was also attended by Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike.

    Osinbajo, who attended the first plenary meeting during the electioneering campaign, represented President Buhari yesterday.

    [ad id=”403656″]Apart from barefaced theft of public funds, corruption has also been cited as the main reason for poor policy choices, the prevalence of poverty in the midst of plenty and waste of resources in the country.

    Buhari said: “Corruption in our country is so endemic that it constitutes a parallel system. It is the primary reason for poor policy choices, waste and, of course, bare- faced theft of public resources.

    “It is the main reason why a potentially prosperous country struggles to feed itself and provide jobs for millions.

    “The hundreds of thousands of deaths in the infant, maternal mortality statistics, the hundreds of thousands of annual deaths from preventable diseases are traceable to the greed and corruption of a few. This is why we must see it as an existential threat. If we don’t kill it, it will kill us.”

    On security, the President said: “We are on course to militarily rout Boko Haram and make them incapable of taking and holding territory.” He added that suicide bombings in some parts of the Northeast were the desperate acts of the terrorists to create a sense that they are still in play.

    He noted that “with vigilance and good local intelligence, we will make those cowardly acts practically impossible.”

    On the economy, the President told the Bishops: “We must change the paradigm of thinking about our economy and the ultimate good of the majority. While we create an enabling environment for free enterprise, we must reason, plan and budget with the understanding that almost 2/3 of our people are extremely poor, and must be helped first to survive and then to fully participate in the economy of the nation.

    “We must create safety nets for the very poor and vulnerable while ensuring that social spending is also a direct investment in the economy.

    “We must invest substantially in relevant education, teacher training and vocational and entrepeneurial training.”

    The President praised the bishops, noting that he had “always been impressed with the social consciousness exhibited by the Catholic Bishops’ Conference”.

    He also recalled that their “bold critical interventions at various crucial moments in our national journey have helped to caution, admonish and ultimately stabilise the polity”. “This is as it should be. This nation belongs to us all; leaders in every sector owe it to this generation to contribute in building a good society.”

    He asked for prayers adding: “for us elected into government, we have since set about the daunting tasks before us, with vigour and commitment in the full assurance that by the grace of God our country will become safe, secure, prosperous and virtuous”.

    President of the Conference, Most Rev. Igantius Kaigama, the Archbishop of Jos, praised the Buhari administration’s commitment to the fight against corruption and praised the formation of a Presidential Advisory Committee on Anti-Corruption.

    According to him, “the President is dead right that if we don’t kill corruption, corruption will kill us.”

    He also prayed that God will give Nigeria a new heart.

  • Labour seeks death sentence for corrupt public officers

    Labour seeks death sentence for corrupt public officers

    Organised Labour unions have demanded for capital punishment for corrupt public officers in the country.
    President of the Nigerian Labour Congress ( NLC) Comrade Ayuba Wabba made the call on Thursday during a march against corruption by labour and civil society groups in Abuja.
    “We are demanding that the penalty of corrupt public officer should be made very strict, including capital punishment. If has worked elsewhere and there is no reason why it should not work here. Therefore, all of us are here to try to present our position,” Wabba stated.
    ” We are here because our laws are very weak. Corrupt officials, even if he steals N 100 billion, at worst, he get two years jail term or part with a fraction of the money and you are allowed to go and enjoy your ill gotten wealth. The one that comes to mind is the case of Atiku Kigbo who stole New billion from Nigeria Pension fund and what he got was two years imprisonment it N750000 fine.
    “We are also demanding that all political office, both elected and appointed must declare their assets before assumption of office, mid way into their tenure and at the end of their office so that we can know whether they have stolen or not.
    “Our generation and generation yet unborn will suffer for the consequences of not fighting corruption. For the first time in our history, workers went eight months without salaries. Let us Fight the symptom. The disease is corruption and lack of good governance,” Wabba stated.
    He also warned the judiciary against issuing perpetual injunctions restraining the EFCC from prosecuting corrupt officers.
    “If we have such cases, Nigerian workers are ready to go their residence and bring them to court and also interrogate the judge.
    “Our judiciary must sit up. Gone are the days when perpetual injunctions are issued,,restraining agencies of government from prosecuting corrupt public officers. We must be on the same page and therefore, Nigerian workers are ready to invade the courts and the sanctity of such judges,” Wabba said.

  • Photo: NLC supports Buhari’s fight against corruption

    Photo: NLC supports Buhari’s fight against corruption

    NIGERIA LABOUR CONGRESS RALLY IN SUPPORT OF PRESIDENT MUHAMADU BUHARI'S FIGHT AGAINST CORRUPTION IN GOVERNMENT AT GOVERMENT HOUSE IN BAUCHI ON THURSDAY
    NIGERIA LABOUR CONGRESS RALLY IN SUPPORT OF PRESIDENT MUHAMADU BUHARI’S FIGHT AGAINST CORRUPTION IN GOVERNMENT AT GOVERMENT HOUSE IN BAUCHI ON THURSDAY
  • Photo: Rally against corruption

    Photo: Rally against corruption