The Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders (CACOL) has backed the call by the Chairman, Senate Committee on the Federal Capital Territory, Smart Adeyemi for the establishment of special anti-graft agency for corrupt politicians.
Corroborating the submissions of the legislator, the Executive Chairman of CACOL, Debo Adeniran noted that establishing another anti-graft agency that would be free from the influence of the Ministry of Justice that whittles down the power of the existing anti-graft agencies, is the only way out of the institutionalised corruption bedevilling the nation.
“It is a good thing this is coming from a serving legislator. Our stand is vindicated because the Senator was talking from an informed point of view. Most corruption cases revolve round politicians, so the call for more anti-graft agency to monitor the financial activities of political office holders at all levels of government is welcomed. “The more, the merrier,”they say, but there should be different agencies with specific missions e.g. Fraud, Stealing of Public Funds, Money Laundering etc, so that if someone escapes justice with one agency, he could be prosecuted for other charges with another.
The human right crusader also called for the strengthening of the existing agencies to achieve more.
“The existing anti-graft agencies i.e. the Code of Conduct Bureau, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC) have become toothless dogs that cannot bite. These anti-graft agencies are not achieving much feat in the recent times because of interference from the Ministry of Justice. Nothing is heard of many high profile corrupt cases charged to court by the EFCC last year. The pension scam, the fuel subsidy scam, the Arumah Oteh and Herman Hembe Saga; all came with so media hype that every Nigerian thought the cases would be brought to a logical conclusion in no distant time. But it is a pity that many people involved in those scams are now walking free men on our streets and some have been reinstated to their positions despite having a plethora of corruption allegations against them. The EFCC and other anti-graft agencies must be given autonomy, if the war against corruption would be won in the nation,”Adeniran noted.
Abimbola Adegoke
Media Officer
25 January, 2013