Corruption Watch – Page 22

August 25, 2015

Fashola: We’re ready to wrestle with pigs for accountability —CACOL leader

The Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders (CACOL) recently wrote a letter to President Muhammadu Buhari warning him not to elevate the immediate past governor of Lagos State, Mr Babatunde Raji Fashola. CACOL’s Executive Chairman, Mr Debo Adeniran, speaks with MOSES ALAO, on why the group is on the trail of the former governor and the need for accountability in Nigeria’s body-politic. Excerpts:

RECENTLY, the immediate past governor of Lagos State, Mr Babatunde Raji Fashola, accused your organisation of writing a preemptive letter to President Muhammadu Buhari, raising allegations that have not been proven. Why did CACOL write a letter that appears to be targeted at stopping Fashola from being appointed into Buhari’s cabinet at this point?

You are wrong. The effort to get Mr Babatunde Fashola to be accountable started in 2009.

But the fact that you wrote that letter to the president now is suspect. Why is CACOL on Fashola’s trail at a point that he is likely to be appointed by the president? How many other likely appointees did you write to Buhari about?

We cannot work on everybody. There are certain things that have obvious answers. It is only those that we know that we can work on. When you talk about why we are on Fashola’s trail, you just need to look at the need to hold our leaders accountable. CACOL is not being sponsored by the state; it is our members that contribute the funds that we utilise to do the little that we can do; so we only take one step at a time.

We are in Lagos and we are witnesses to the budgetary presentations year in year out, which can be put at an average of N500 billion yearly. We know that international organisations like UNESCO, WHO and World Bank, among others, contributed to some of the projects that are supposed to have been executed in Lagos, especially in the areas of provision of water, drainage system and aesthetic, that is citing of ornamental plants and so on were also done with contributions from corporate organisations, which are in abundance in Lagos. So, when we pieced all of these together, we discovered that more than N5 trillion could have been budgeted for and expended in Lagos in the past eight years by the government headed by Mr Fashola. We moved round Lagos and we discovered that there were no adequate signs that such amount of money was properly utilised. We suspected that as early as 2009. By February 2010, we wrote the first petition, after we had been frustrated, having tried in vain to see everyone that needed to be seen for explanation. We wrote that petition to the Lagos State House of Assembly and we submitted it in a public protest that was covered by the mass media. The House set up a panel to investigate the claims in the petition, but the state government went to court by proxy, using Richard Akinnola; the late Bamidele Aturu was his lawyer. They succeeded in getting an injunction restraining the House from proceeding with the investigation. If a governor does not have anything to hide, why is it difficult for him to allow an investigation by an arm of the same government and just present his side of the story?

Remember also that a group called the True Face of Lagos came up with damning allegations about the financial recklessness of the Fashola’s administration. But he didn’t defend himself or state his own side of the story; he only said the group was faceless. It got to a stage that we went round all the locations that the True Face of Lagos mentioned and we decided to give a face to what they did; so we adopted their petition and sent it to the governor to give us their response, but they did not respond.

Can you remember when you sent that petition?

That was in 2010 but we didn’t get anything. Out of frustration, we wrote to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the commission claimed that it had got our petition and that it invited some directors and other top officials. The commission claimed it got a detailed report, which it would not release to us because Fashola had immunity. Out of frustration, also, we went to town, called representatives of all the local governments together in a hall and we called in Lagos Open Parliament. Through that platform, we got reports from each local government about how the government was able to implement the appropriation law, how effective or otherwise it was. We administered questionnaires and the entries were recorded. We gave at least 2,000 questionnaires to each local government, retrieved the ones we could and analysed them. We monitored mass media and social media reportage of budget performance and we gathered that the implementation was far less than expected. We didn’t stop at that; we took photographs of areas where expectations of the people were not met and we put all our findings in a book. We also monitored the internet and we compiled these findings into a book we called ‘Lagos Open Parliament: A report of the underground assessment of the state of budgetary implementation on infrastructural development in Lagos State between May 2007 and May 2011.’ The book can be accessed on our website. It contains pictures, data, graphs, tables and so on. But after all of these, we thought that we could be wrong and so we sent copies to the government; but I must tell you that we had even sent manuscripts to the government before publishing the book, telling them that if they had any defence to make, they should do it. We started updating that book through the same process. We also kept on reminding the anti-corruption agencies every year but they didn’t give us the feedback we desired; we were waiting and complaining. We grumbled about why everyone should ignore us when we had presented how expectations of people were not met and no one explained why government was right and we had been wrong. After that frustration, we vowed that it would be protest without end.

But it is appearing as if CACOL just woke up at the prompting of some people to hunt Fashola.

That is not correct. If you could recall, before the last general elections, we had a public demonstration, warning the Lagos public not to vote for Mr Akinwumi Ambode, because he was coming from the same stock with Fashola. It was also at that time that we asked former Governor Bola Tinubu to come out in the open and defend all the allegations against him in the documentary aired on AIT. We told him that rather than go to court to stop the documentary, he should defend himself in the open on allegations the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) levelled against him, because the court has always been deployed as a tool to keep others quiet about issues. Unfortunately, we didn’t get anything out of those efforts.

So, when elections came and went, we knew that President Buhari, whose election we supported because of his pedigree, antecedent, personality and integrity he exudes, would be able to fight corruption. But when we saw this gentleman, Fashola, dancing around the president, following him everywhere and fraternising with him, we suspected that he could have been lobbying the president for a post and we knew that would be dangerous for Nigerians’ collective wellbeing.

Why did you think so?

You would recall that Lagos State was a theatre of activism during the clamour for the Freedom of Information Act. But we wrote to the Lagos State government back then, asking them to give us all the information we needed regarding the corruption allegations based on FOI Act and the state that was governed by Fashola, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), replied us through its Ministry of Justice that the FOI law passed by the order of the National Assembly was not applicable to Lagos. We were taken aback then and that was why we said if Fashola had his way to the federal level, he would discourage the federal government from engaging in pro-people governance. He is not likely to allow transparency, accountability and probity. He might even work towards the repealing of the FOI Act. So, it was on that basis that we had to write Buhari that instead of elevating Fashola, he should get him investigated and possibly prosecuted. That was the basis of our letter.

But Fashola made a reference to some pigs somewhere who he would not like to wrestle with. Is CACOL sponsored by some anti-Fashola elements to stop him from being appointed into office?

Look at it from this angle, if you want pork, won’t you wrestle with a pig and make sure it dies? CACOL wants a piece of pork and that pork is to make our leaders remember that they are accountable to the people, who are the owners of the sovereignty. That is what we are doing and we are going to wrestle this pig into submission and we will not allow the pig to go into our barn, because it will destroy everything it finds there.

I want to tell you that if we had been sponsored since 2009, we would have been able to fight him more frontally than we are doing. He would not have been able to cover his tracks. It is because we had no access to government shelves that we have not been able to compel the anti-graft agencies to prosecute him. If we were sponsored, we would have been able to mobilise Lagosians and we would have been able to buy media spaces to make our points. As I am speaking with you, CACOL is not sponsored by anyone; we do not have money, but we have intellect; we have the know-how; we have the spirit of activism, patriotism and progressivism and these are driving us. We believe that someone must stand for what is right. That is what obtains in Nigeria, whenever anyone says anything against a top personality, such person will be accused of being sponsored.

The former governor said the allegations against him could not be substantiated, that you have no evidence.

It took us five years to get facts and reports that we have published and he has failed to ever respond to. So what is the evidence that we are being sponsored? Fashola said we did not have any evidence, when every top civil servant in government had been sworn to secrecy not provide any evidence. The only statute we could use to compel the MDAs to give evidence had been made ineffective in Lagos and what we did was to go into the fields and question how contracts were awarded and executed even when the facilities were nowhere to be found.

But he said his job was done, having served the state for 12 years.

Which job was done? Is it roads? Is it schools? Is it hospitals that we will talk about? There is nothing that is not in a bad state in Lagos; there is always flood anytime there is a heavy rain; the drainage system is too shallow. Fashola started building on the lagoon, go and look at what they are doing at Ilubirin and what they call the Atlantic City. Is that what Lagos needs? Why is the money spent on the cable bridge in Ikoyi not utilised on an expressway that will run from Ikorodu to Epe and back to Lekki so that people could move freely, because that is the axis where people who only depend on their ingenuity to earn a tuning for themselves are. But their roads are bad; there is no security in Lagos. Security of lives and properties is in a shambles. So, what can we not talk about? If anyone says someone is sponsoring CACOL, we are happy that we are being sponsored to do what is right; but I can tell you that we are only being sponsored by our members who contribute what they have towards emancipating people from physical and moral enslavement they were subjected to by the administration of Fashola and we are not going to stop at anything but to achieve freedom for them.

Finally, do you subscribe to the claim in some quarters that the current fight against corruption is selective?

There is no way the corrupt elements will not complain that the anti-graft agencies’ war is selective; even when you publish a story, they will accuse you. How come you won’t select? Once it is only those who perpetrated corruption that are being selected, we are happy with that. If it is only those corrupt elements on whom we have adequate evidence and witnesses that are being selected, Nigerians will be happy with that. Inasmuch as no innocent person can come out to claim that he is being wrongly prosecuted, you cannot prevent elements that are drowning from clutching to any available means, even straws, in order to discredit any effort towards bringing them to justice. Everyone who has perpetrated corruption must rot in jail. Unless we all put our acts together to kill corruption, corruption will kill us. We should not allow corruption to kill us. We should banish corruption.

Source: Sunday Tribune.

August 24, 2015

Special courts needed for corruption cases –CACOL

Posted By: AYO ESAN on: August 23, 2015

Comrade Debo Adeniran is the Executive Chairman of the Campaign Against Corrupt Leaders, CACOL. In this interview with Ayo Esan, he speaks on the issue of corruption in the country and the effort of President Muhammadu Buhari to stem it. Excerpts:

How will you assess President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration so far?

There is the need for a public declaration of his assets. You know that is important so that we know where he is coming from and we would have a baseline through which we can measure his accumulation while in the office and be able to assess his statement of account at the end of the tenure. So if he has not done that and his vice has also not done that, we are not satisfied. What we expected is that as soon as they completed their code of conduct bureau forms they hand it over to the media not minding what the code of conduct bureau will say after. This is because the implication of not making it public early enough is that they must have garner enough strength to cow the code of conduct bureau to agree with what they dictate to them. If they are now making it open, we may not totally believe them because it would have been compromised one way or the other even if it wasn’t they would have given that room for doubt.

Be that as it may, the other agenda which they have carried out especially in the area of anti-corruption ,we are satisfied with that , that the books of the past leaders would be looked into and everybody that have been found to have soiled his hands will be punished. But what we have not seen is how adequate the punishment will be, how deterrent the punishment will be and that is what we are expecting from the regime to re-work the book to ensure that the punishment that will be meted out to corrupt criminals are truly deterrent and would be a clear departure from a slap on the wrist kind of punishment which we have witnessed in the past.

Then international relations, it has been so far so good citing the example of the President’s visit to the G7 although we are not sure that the G7 has acted in tandem with the wish list that the president submitted to them . We are not yet sure that they have lived up to expectation. But for the government of the United States, we are sure that they have made a number of promises which we are sure is going to help our polity.

That is a good direction and there are some criminals who stole before and have started returning money. Power is relatively stable now than it used to be and the promise that the refinery will soon be working and if they are working in Nigeria there won’t be any need to import refined products from anywhere. That means that the regime of subsidy will naturally die. Basically it has been right steps in the right direction but there is still a long way to go, although we are still far away from the start point and that is a good omen.

How will you assess his anti-corruption programme?

It is being so good and that he said he is going to probe the last regime is a good step in the right direction and a good way to start. But beyond that , he should look into the pending petitions with anti-corruption agency and with the presidency and to ensure that every petition is investigated , is reacted to in such a way that the petitioner will not feel let down . That is the way by which you garner public will to support the government towards the eradication of corruption in Nigeria. But like I said earlier he need to re-work the books especially the legal criminal justice system that makes it possible for corruption-criminals to delay the period of adjudication to their cases for as long as they wish. There should be a time limit during which such hearing could be done and any lawyer that waste the time of the court should know that if it is discovered that he deliberated waste the time of the court he should be sanctioned. Any judge that allows frivolous application when it is unnecessary should also be sanctioned. That means that there would be a commission that will oversee the adjudication into all these criminal cases to ensure that no lawyer participate in deliberate time wasting venture because some lawyers are found to conspire with the criminals to circumvent the course of justice by delaying the cases . First, they know that the trial judge could die or could be transferred and that means that the case will start pro novo. That is starting afresh. Then frivolous application like questioning the jurisdiction of the court even if it is a magistrate court should be allowed to try corruption cases and should insist that even the suspected corruption criminal will appeal the case to the high court. He should be the one that will embark on that. So there is no court that should not be given the jurisdiction to try corruption cases, even if it is going to be a customary court. So the question of them filing against the jurisdiction of the court and they will pursue that to the Supreme Court. Then they will look for other frivolous excuses to file another process they pursue it to the Supreme Court that is the way they delayed cases. There are a lot of cases still pending since the first regime of the present republic. You can find that the case of Femi Fani-Kayode spent seven good years in court Chief Uzor Kalu still has a case in court, Joshua Dariye , many of them who had even participated in the national assembly exercises and completed several terms of offices They still have pending cases in court . That regime should be abolished and to ensure that every corruption cases is not more than six months before t it is deposed off.

But some people are suggesting that there should be a special court for corruption cases. What is your view on that?

Yes, the one way out of it, is to have special courts for trial of corruption cases because corruption has become a cankerworm that to extricate it needs specialised skills and that is why we also joined former Chairman of the EFCC, Mrs. Farida Waziri when she suggested it. That if there is Special Court, then no court will claim to have too many cases that are not corruption cases to attend to. The specialized courts will have all the time to look at all the statutory books that have to do with corruption. They will be well abreast of precedence and decided cases, which will help them in determining the cases in their own court. Then they will be given time limit during which the cases will be heard not the same rule that will apply in other jurisdiction that will try corruption cases, because it is an emergency situation that has to be dealt with in an emergency solution. Part of it is to make it a snappy thing like the former Chief Justice of Nigeria, Aloma Murktar tried to do because any judge that engage in corrupt practices she cautioned them, query them, punish them immediately not allowing things to lie low. And she actually put machinery in motions that make quick dispensation of criminal justice even faster than what was expected to be.

The PDP senators are saying that President Buhari’s anti-corruption drive is targeted mainly at the PDP members. They said he should also probe former Governor of Rivers State, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi and former Governor of Lagos State, Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu who they accused of also being corrupt.

You see, also former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo was also accused of selective justice and they accused him of misuse of EFCC during his tenure. That will always come. What the opposition should do is to put together enough evidences and witnesses that can actually compel the EFCC or ICPC or Code of Conduct Bureau to prosecute some of the cases they desire to be prosecuted. Like Tinubu for example, they have made several allegations but none of these allegations have been able to stand the test of judicial process.

Now for Amaechi, I don’t know the evidence they have but if they have evidence let them bring it to the EFCC or even to us at CACOL. We will put it in the front burner and everybody will know he has a case to answer. The practice in Nigeria is that once something affected you in a way that you don’t desire , you continue to look for excuses and to kind of vilified the authorities that makes it possible for you to trace the court of justice.

President Muhammadu Buhari has set up a committee on war against corruption under the Chairmanship of legal luminary, Professor Itse Sagay. How do you see the set up of the committee and its composition?

It is a good thing that the committee is set up given the antecedent of Professor Itse Sagay who was an active member of ASUU when he was in the then University of Ife now Obafemi Awolowo University and later moved to Benin where he was an officer of ASUU and performed creditably well . Don’t be deceived he was also a victim of the first incursion into politics by the military during President Buhari military administration.

Source: National Mirror.

August 20, 2015

Adeniran: Why we’re fighting Fashola

Aug 20, 2015TEMITOPE OGUNBANKEPolitics0 Comments

Adeniran: Why we’re fighting Fashola

Comrade Debo Adeniran, a human rights activist and anti-corruption crusader is the chairman of Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders (CACOL). In this interview with TEMITOPE OGUNBANKE, he speaks on President Muhammadu Buhari’s commitment to the fight against corruption, graft allegations against former governor of Lagos State, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, among other issues

What is your take on former Governor Babatunde Fashola’s defence on the controversial N78 million website design?

What concerns us more is the issue of suspected corruption embedded in the award and execution of contracts in the regime of Babatunde Fashola as illuminated by the award of this N78.3 million website contract. Every Information Technology (IT) person our organisation, the Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders (CACOL), contacted put a bloated estimate of the cost of the website at about N6 million. We are not surprised that a contract that could have cost N6 million ballooned to N78.3 million, because that is a trademark of Fashola’s administration.

The website contract is an eye-opener and lending credence to the allegations of the ‘True Face of Lagos’ where most of the contracts awarded before 2010 were said to have been immorally inflated by the Fashola-led administration. If the former governor could be justifying the cost of his personal website, no matter what he uses it for, then there may be many more shenanigans to be unearthed by the relevant anti-graft agencies.

As a matter of fact, we see it as a way by which the former governor laundered at least N68.3 million out of the state coffers because the firm that put that website together had insisted that it only collected N10 million.

We are not supposed to be IT specialists, neither are we going to go deeper into the analysis of the content, but from the look of things, the use of the website is only opened to the initiates, so of what use is a N78.3 million website when several other developmental needs of the Lagos people he claimed he was ruling were begging for attention? It is absurd that whereas Lagos State has its own website, the MDAs (Ministries, Departments and Agencies) have their own websites; Mr. Fashola could still host another website, not as the Governor of Lagos, but in his own name with taxpayers’ money. This means that the entire N78.3 million was spent on the need of the former governor.

The website is not our priority because until the story broke out a few days back, many of the middle class elements that are major users of internet do not know that the website was existing, which means that the priority had been misplaced. Only God knows how many of such expenditures would have been incurred on the part of the government. The basis of our petitions was to get Fashola investigated of all alleged corrupt cases and if possible prosecuted.

But the former governor has described people like you and his accusers as pigs. How do you feel about this?

Mr. Fashola has mentioned pig, but we are no pigs. Since they are, we won’t mind fighting the pigs to get the pork.

The history of integrity and the outcome of such accountability would be the stain-removal that will remove the stain we could have gotten from fighting the pig. And until the pigs are brought down and we extract the pork, which is accountability we require from them, it would be protests without end. Truth is a muddy puddle and when the puddle is hit with the staff it splashes multidirectional.

It then behoves those who get stained in the wake to clean themselves up by rendering account of their stewardship on why they make supposed clean water dirty. If we must cut the pork out of the federal and state budgets, we shouldn’t stop at anything but get the pig out of the barn. This pig must be banished from our barn.

Your petition was seen as a means to stop expected federal appointment of the former governor into Muhammadu Buhari-led administration. Now, that Fashola has said that he is not looking for a job, are you satisfied?

Of course he is looking for a job because his body language has told us that he is looking for a job and the way he dances around President Buhari shows that he is trying to warm himself into the heart of Buhari. It has been rumoured from different quarters and that was how the rumour also started when he was to become a governor and eventually he became the governor. Fashola’s arrogance didn’t start today; it started since the day he was the Chief of Staff to former Governor Bola Tinubu.

This was how the rumour started that he would be his Chief of Staff and it eventually translated to the truth. In the second coming of Fashola as governor, we said because he was not accountable in the first term of office, he should not be allowed a second term, but he got it. So, we don’t want to leave any stone unturned. We are just informing the president that this man has a number of socio-political and moral questions to answer over the way he governed Lagos and until he discharges himself of such lingering questions, he should not be given a new appointment.

How do you see determination of President Buhari to probe those who have looted the nation’s treasury?

His anti-corruption programme so far has been so good. He has said that he is going to probe the immediate past administration. His decision is in the right direction and a way to start but beyond that he should look out pending petitions with the anti-corruption agencies and the ones with the presidency itself and ensure that every petition is investigated and reacted to in such a way that the petitioner will not feel let down.

That is the way by which the public will support the effort of government towards the eradication of corruption in Nigerian. He also needs to rework the books especially the legal criminal justice system that make it possible for corrupt people to delay the period of adjudication into their cases for as long as they wish.

There should be a time limit during which such hearing would be done and any lawyer that waste the time of the court should know that if it is discovered that it is a deliberate action, would be sanctioned. Any judge that allows frivolous applications when it is unnecessary should also be sanctioned. This means that there should be a commission that will oversee the adjudication into all of these criminal cases to ensure that no judge or lawyer participates in deliberate time-wasting venture.

What is your take on the setting up of Prof. Itse Sagay-led Presidential Advisory Committee on corruption?

With the calibre of people in the anti-corruption committee, we believe that the committee is a good pedestal to set a template for the regime to fight corruption. It is worthy to, however, note that it is not the absence of a good template or theoretical basis that anticorruption fight has been difficult in Nigeria; it is because of lack of political will, which also dampens the spirit of the public against the fight against corruption.

The committee, if allowed to do its duties without interference from any quarters, will confer credibility on the present regime and will also enhance the public confidence in the regime to fight corruption.

What is important is that the judiciary should be sanitised; the anti-corruption agencies should be strengthened with funds, equipment and training. There should also be protection and security of lives of the investigators and their relatives. If that is done, the anti-corruption agencies would be able to do diligent prosecution in the court of justice.

How would you react to the position of the General Abdulsalam Abubakar-led peace committee, especially that of Bishop Matthew Kukah that President Buhari should focus more on governance and not be distracted by his corruption fight?

They cannot constitute themselves into an alternative advisory platform unless Nigerians approve of them and the advice has been helping the aspirations of Nigerians. It doesn’t matter what method of strategy the administration adopted, no individuals or groups of individuals should dissuade the present government from examining the books of its predecessors. Nobody stopped the predecessors from probing the governments before them and if they didn’t do it, they would be creating more problems for everybody in this country.

They should also not forget that Nigerians voted for the change mantra of the present ruling party and they have to do everything they want to, even in fighting against corruption in clear departure of what the previous government has done.

Hitherto, the government that they are pleading on behalf condones corruption instead of fighting corruption by every action that they took during their regime. That should not be allowed to continue. So, the committee should not go beyond its bound. It is not speaking for majority of Nigerians; it is speaking for itself and those who set it up not the Nigerians.

Source: New Telegraph.

August 15, 2015

Corruption allegations, blot on Fashola’s administration

August 15, 2015 : Fisayo Falodi 13 Comments

Mr. Babatunde Fashola

Explanation by a former Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, on how the N78m he approved for the upgrade of his personal website is considered unsatisfactory, FISAYO FALODI writes

Admirers of a former Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, if given the opportunity, will like to roll out the drums and celebrate their hero for the successful completion of two terms in office. They will like to use various yardsticks to assess his two tenures in office and come to the conclusion that the 13th governor of Lagos State had fulfilled his electioneering promises to the people.

They will, no doubt, hail the former governor for serving the people meritoriously while in office. The admirers will like to point to the several accolades he won for the various programmes executed by his administration. They will also like to mention the fact that some of his policies were testimonies of his excellent performance.

To some watchers of political events in the state, Fashola’s administration marked a historic turning point in Lagos since the state was created on May 27, 1967. Of the former governors’ achievements while in office,supporter picked five as most significant.

They hailed the former governor for personally overseeing the battle to contain the spread of the deadly Ebola virus brought into the country by a United States-Liberian citizen, Patrick Sawyer, in the state and investment in education leading to the reintegration and creation of new blocks of classrooms, distribution of free text books and provision of workrooms and libraries as outstanding achievements.

Other Fashola’s achievements, according to them, are renewal of infrastructure culminating in the construction of many roads, building pedestrian bridges, execution of over 110 projects in rural communities and prioritising of security with emphasis on turning hideouts that previously served as bases for impostors and armed robbers into beautiful environment. They also listed the establishment of the Lagos State Security Trust Fund to effectively finance the security needs of the state as a major feat achieved by the ex-governor.

Based on the widely proclaimed catalogue of achievements by Fashola, some analysts are already speculating that President Muhammadu Buhari may appoint the former governor as one of his ministers.

But as plausible as the conjecture sounds, critics believe that Fashola has to answer some questions bordering on integrity and how he managed public resources while he was in office as the governor. The critics alleged that the former governor’s hands were not clean in terms of management of public funds and asked Buhari not to consider him for appointment in his yet-to-be-formed cabinet.

Like Fashola’s admirers who catalogued his achievements for likely appointment as a minister, a civil society group, Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders, also felt that the former governor deserved no higher responsibility because his administration was engulfed in many controversies that could not be overlooked.

CACOL Executive Chairman, Mr. Debo Adeniran, listed what he considered as Fashola’s “sin” to include failure by the former governor to fix the dilapidated public schools in the state and his refusal to disclose how his administration spent the $200m World Bank education fund even when the Socio-Economic Right Accountability Project invoked the Freedom of Information Act to know how the money was expended.

He said instead, Fashola ran the state’s affairs in secrecy by claiming that the FOI Act did not apply to state governments.

While insisting that Fashola should be made to account for the alleged moral and financial misconducts that characterised his administration, Adeniran said independent investigations by CACOL revealed that the 1.36km Lekki-Ikoyi Link Bridge reportedly built for N25bn actually cost only N6bn.

He, however, wondered why the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission ignored the series of petitions he said he had written to the anti-graft body to probe the various projects Fashola claimed to have executed in the face of the over N500bn debt left behind by his administration.

Based on its finding, CACOL wrote a letter to the President, asking him not to consider Fashola for ministerial appointment while constituting his cabinet.

The group’s letter to Buhari had read, “Mr. President, we are constrained at this point in time to bring to your attention our critical reaction to the unbridled speculation making the rounds for some time now, from the members of the public as well as the media, as to the fact that the immediate past governor of Lagos State, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, is being considered by the Presidency for higher national responsibility. Feelers have it that his name is prominent on the list of the president’s nominees for key offices in your administration.

“It is gratifying that you have promised at various fora that your appointments would be purely based on merit and that tested technocrats, with impeccable records, would be given their rightful places in your administration, as a way of ensuring good governance to the people of Nigeria.

“It is against this background that our organisation is appealing to you to please take the pains to dig deep into Mr. Babatunde Fashola’s record of performance as well as that of financial impropriety on the part of his government while in office.”

Besides allegation by CACOL, the Lagos State Public Procurement Agency claimed that the former governor approved the sum of N78m for the upgrade of his personal website www.tundefashola.com in 2014.

What made the revelation an attention-grabbing one, according to observers, was that it was published by the state’s agency. The observers therefore doubted that the revelation was meant to malign the former governor’s reputation, contrary to a claim by Fashola’s aides that it was a campaign of calumny against the former governor’s chances in Buhari’s cabinet.

The contract for the upgrade of the website was awarded to Info Access Plus Limited by the Office of the Chief of Staff of the Governor.

The expenditure published on the state public procurement office’s website was first exposed by foremost budget analytic firm, BudgiT.

Other questionable expenditure, among others, said to have been incurred by Fashola’s administration included N1.2bn vaguely spent on the construction of pedestrian bridges along Eti-Osa Lekki-Epe Expressway. The spending was tagged “vaguely” because it did not specify the number of bridges constructed with the money.

Following these revelations, BudgiT called for probe into Fashola’s finances and expenditures while in office.

The Lagos State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party described the N78m spent on the website upgrade as reckless, adding that it was part of the “needless” expenditure that jerked up the Lagos State debt profile under Fashola to N500bn.

The state PDP Publicity Secretary, Mr. Taofik Gani, while stressing that Fashola spent the tax payers’ money on a website that exclusively served him, also asked Buhari to initiate moves to probe the former governor, instead of considering him for appointment.

Gani said, “The website was more than 70 times the actual cost. Little wonder it is on record that he is the former governor that incurred the highest debt in the history of Lagos State.”

But Fashola defended the N78.3m approved for the upgrade of his website, confirming that the money was actually spent.

He, however, accused his critics of refusing to break down the details of the transaction to cause confusion in the state.

He had said, “As far as the website contract is concerned, yes there was a contract. It went through procurement and was approved by the government agency authorised to do so. One of the services was an upgrade quoted for N12.5m but awarded for N12m.

“There were other services that were new like a hand over countdown clock, mobile Apps for Google, for IOS and Ipad, for Microsoft and for Research in Motion (Blackberry), which the existing website did not have, as well as the annual maintenance cost for managing the website.”

The former governor equally told CACOL to stop worrying itself with the belief that he was interested in ministerial appointment.

Fashola said, “I cannot conclude without responding to the crusade of CACOL and their ilk seeking my prosecution on allegations that have no proof and writing pre-emptive letters to the Presidency.

“In case they are unaware, I am not looking for a job. I expect them to know that allegations of wrongdoing are not resolved without evidence, neither are they resolved in press conferences.”

A social scientist, Mr. Ajiboye Akinniyi, who described himself as one of Fashola’s fans, said though he would continue to praise the former governor for surpassing his predecessor in terms of performance, the former governor should see the agitation by the people to seek explanation on how their money was spent as one of the responsibilities of the office.

Allegations bordering on financial impropriety levelled against anyone, especially those who held public offices in one time or the other deserve explanation,” he said.

Akinniyi, however, asked those entrusted with positions of responsibility to bear in mind that people are watching them.

He said though Fashola had explained how the N78m was spent, that did not mean that the former governor would not be asked questions bordering on the financial management of the state in the future, if the need arises.

Akinniyi said, “Fashola ought to have known before now that the people might want to ask him questions concerning how he spent their money for eight years; he ought to have known that holding public office equally demands accountability, especially as speculation is rife that Buhari may appoint him to head one of the key ministries.”

A financial analyst, Mrs. Atinuke Owotutu, said Fashola might have satisfied the curiosity of those seeking explanation on how the N78m was spent, but the former governor should get prepared to satisfy others who might want detailed explanation on how other expenses were made under his watch.

Owotutu said she had never believed that Fashola worked enough in Lagos State, considering the huge amount of allocation and Internally Generated Revenue that were available to him while in office.

She said, “I have always asked people not to be deceived. One thing is when you have a large number of people toeing the same path, you have got to stop and think, ‘Is this the right direction?’ Nobody needed to tell me that Fashola didn’t do enough regarding the level of performance expected from his administration.

“He must come out and account for other allegations that have been levelled against him. It is not enough for him to say he doesn’t want to join issues with anyone. He should; this is accountability we are talking about.”

Source: The PUNCH.

August 10, 2015

Notice of CACOL Annual Convention/ Founder’s Day

Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders (CACOL)

The Humanity Centre: 610, Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway, Ijaye Bus stop, Ijaye-Ojokoro.

P.O. Box 1592, Agege, Lagos, Nigeria.Tel: 01-4736534, 08023226276, 08037194969

www.thehumanitycentre.org E-mail: cacolc@yahoo.com, dadnig@yahoo.com

Name, Nail, Shame and Shun Corrupt Leaders Anywhere, Everywhere

10th August, 2015

Compatriot,

Notice of CACOL Annual Convention/ Founder’s Day

The Annual General Convention/Founder’s Day of the Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders (CACOL) holds in September.

The Convention seeks to educate members on the workings, strategies and the tactics of the Coalition in fighting corruption in Nigeria.

The event will also serve as an avenue for participants to socialize and welcome new members into the Coalition.

Members and affiliates of the Coalition are hereby enjoined to please pay up their annual dues to facilitate our planning as what is contributed would be used for funding the event.

For further enquiries, kindly call: 0814 112 1208 or 0708 214 7742. You can also send mail to cacolc@yahoo.com

Thank you for the anticipated cooperation as we look forward to your early contributions and payments.

Yours faithfully,

Debo Adeniran
Executive Chairman, CACOL

August 10, 2015

BUHARI’S PROBE IS PART OF THE CHANGE WE WANT- CACOL

Against the backdrop of some analysts and Nigerians who had reacted that governance goes beyond the ongoing probe of corrupt public officials by the Buhari’s administration, the Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders has asserted that the probe is in order.

The group emphasized that Nation should be serious about making a difference, it advised that we must understand that we cannot accomplish anything significant on our own because meeting the great challenges of our time requires cooperative efforts.

CACOL had initially agreed with the President when he said, “At home we face enormous challenges. Insecurity, pervasive corruption, the hitherto unending and seemingly impossible fuel and power shortages are the immediate concerns. We are going to tackle them head on. Nigerians will not regret that they have entrusted national responsibility to us. We must not succumb to hopelessness and defeatism. We can fix our problems.”

The Coalition of anti-corruption organisations considered that Buhari’s speeches and powerful agenda have reflected seriousness and passion for the responsibilities of his new office but had yet to spell out practical blueprint that would make the nation’s economy one of the fastest growing emerging ones in the world for the purpose of engaging youths for productive activities, which they described as one of the pillars of his campaign promises. Nigerians believed the economy, infrastructure, youth employment and other critical sectors should also be given equal attention by the President.

The group asserted that its hope was rekindled because President Buhari had maintained that he would not waste his administration’s precious time on probing every past administration before his as doing so would only amount to sheer distraction which, at the end of the day, would have left the very core of governance unattended to. This implies that he is not ready to stop at anything until he has been able to achieve his promises within the limit of what is achievable during his tenor.

In his reaction, Debo Adeniran, the Executive Chairman of CACOL said that the only mission or agenda under which Nigerians voted Gen. Muhammadu Buhari into power was to explore the possibility of putting to an end an era that cannot sustain Nigeria and replace it with an era of new hope and new initiatives. For the first time we have a President we can fully describe as being progressive despite all the political shortcomings.

“Even if probe is going to take the four years of Buhari’s tenure, he needs to clear the mess. Even at that, Buhari has been working because there are areas of improvement in the power sector, the oil sector is been re-engineered, Nigerian’s integrity has been restored in many countries, foreign relations has been strengthened, prosecuting in the war against corruption and war against insurgency, etc.The probing is worth it because the nation has been soiled for so long and the dust table needs to be cleared. President Muhammadu Buhari didn’t stop at anything.” Adeniran said.

Debo Adeniran concluded by imploring President Buhari not allow himself to be distracted in any way, in his quest to fight corruption nor get carried away in his probe crusade. Nigerians want to operate in an economy that will reward their effort, not the one that will further frustrate them so, as he concentrate on pursuing his anti-corruption crusade he should also ensure that other sectors of the economy get the same attention he gave insecurity and corruption

SOURCE: CACOL

August 10, 2015

Buhari’s Probe Is Part Of The Change We Want- CACOL

By admin / Sunday, 09 Aug 2015

The group emphasized that the Nation should be serious about making a difference and it advised that we must understand that we cannot accomplish anything significant on our own because meeting the great challenges of our time requires cooperative efforts.

“Even if probe is going to take the four years of Buhari’s tenure, he needs to clear the mess. Even at that, Buhari has been working because there are areas of improvement in the power sector, the oil sector is been re-engineered, Nigerian’s integrity has been restored in many countries, foreign relations has been strengthened, prosecuting in the war against corruption and war against insurgency, etc. The probing is worth it because the nation has been soiled for so long and the dust table needs to be cleared. President Muhammadu Buhari didn’t stop at anything.” Adeniran said.

Source: Universal Reporters.

August 6, 2015

Expose chronic bank debtors and their collaborators, CACOL tells FG

Posted by Editor on August 6, 2015

Biodun Abimbola

Following the release of bank debtors in the country, the Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders (CACOL) has called on the federal government to go further by exposing and punished all those that collaborate with the defaulters.

Reacting to the amazing long list of chronic debtors as recently published in some national newspapers, the Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders (CACOL) has come out to laud the development which it describes as a bold and proactive on the part of the affected banks.

Commenting, the coalition’s executive chairman, Comrade Debo Adeniran, said that the step would no doubt open a new chapter in the core role of the banking industry in the economic base of this country.

Adeniran, opined that the relationship between the banks and their patrons especially in regard to advancing credit facilities to project financing remains a veritable tool for promoting the overall industrial strength of any state and which on a broader scale contributes prominently to determining its overall Gross Domestic Product (GDP).He posited that those chronic debtors and their collaborating bankers should be seen, not only as corrupt elements but also as saboteurs of the nation’s economy. “What do I mean? The ‘big men’ especially politician-businessmen, use their state connections and influences to intimidate the banks into granting loans for projects that are neither thoroughly scrutinized to predetermine their credibility or viability as the case might be, as demanded by the practice nor obtain commensurate collaterals so as to ensure that such loans are adequately secured. And what about the Central Bank too that is constitutionally saddled with the responsibility of oversight and supervision of the activities of these banks?

“Where were they while these unethical practices went on unabated? I dare say, that whatever action is to be taken to deter this dishonest, irresponsible acts should not be restricted to just embarrassing the chronic debtors by publishing their names, steps should be further taken to expose and query their collaborators in the affected commercial banks as well as the Central Bank” he declared.

He decried the common practice whereby the banks openly discriminate against the less privileged loan applicants, regardless of the viability potentials of their projects.

He wondered why banks would disregard a favourable feasibility report on a potentially viable project from a fresher in business, say, a brilliant young entrepreneur or a fresh graduate with a brilliant business idea, insisting on him providing a commensurate collateral, even before looking at his papers, while the ‘big men and women’ with unauthenticated projects and with low business acumen, are expressly considered; just because they are whom they are.He affirmed that any act of compromise in generally accepted norm and practice is indeed an act of corruption and should be so treated.

According to him, a country’s GDP and economy could only be said to be growing through the empowerment of the yet-to-be established industrialists and not adding to the already established. That amounts to choking up the economic base, narrows its spread and ultimately preventing possible growth in other sectors and human materials.

CACOL is therefore calling on the federal government to engage the main actors in our banking sector as a way of finding a means of overhauling and reengineering the sector, so as to ensure that the economy is broad-based through its project financing policies. Banks owes it a social responsibility to make its services available in all forms to both the haves and the have-nots in the society. Prerequisites for qualifying for credit facilities should be relaxed be made more elastic in such a way that every innovative and developmental minds would cultivate a general sense of belonging in the economic arrangement of this country.

Source: Newsverge.

August 6, 2015

EXPOSE AND PUNISH THEM: CHRONIC BANK DEBTORS AND THEIR COLLABORATORS; CACOL DEMANDS

Commenting, the coalition’s executive chairman, Debo Adeniran, believes that such step would no doubt be opening a new chapter in the core role of the banking industry in the economic base of this country. He opined that the relationship between the banks and their patrons especially in regard to advancing credit facilities to project financing remains averitable tool for promoting the overall industrial strength of any state and which on a broader scale contributes prominently to determining its overall GDP (Gross Domestic Product).

Debo Adeniran posited that those chronic debtors and their collaborating bankers should be seen, not only as corrupt elements but also as saboteurs of the nation’s economy. “What do I mean? The ‘big men’ especially politician-businessmen,use their state connections and influences to intimidate the banks into granting loans for projects that are neither thoroughly scrutinized to predetermine their credibility or viability as the case might be, as demanded by the practice nor obtain commensurate collaterals so as to ensure that such loans are adequately secured. And what about the Central Bank too that is constitutionally saddled with the responsibility of oversight and supervision of the activities of these banks? Where were they while these unethical practices went on unabated? I dare say, that whatever action is to be taken to deter this dishonest, irresponsible acts should not be restricted to just embarrassing the chronic debtors by publishing their names, steps should be further taken to expose and query their collaborators in the affected commercial banks as well as the Central Bank” he declared.

He decried the common practice whereby the banks openly discriminate against the less privileged loan applicants, regardless of the viability potentials of their projects. He wondered why banks would disregard a favourable feasibility report on a potentially viable project from a fresher in business, say, a brilliant young entrepreneur or a fresh graduate with a brilliant business idea, insisting on him providing a commensurate collateral, even before looking at his papers, while the ‘big men and women’ with unauthenticated projects and with low business acumen, are expressly considered; just because they are whom they are. He affirmed that any act of compromise in generally accepted norm and practice is indeed an act of corruption and should be so treated. According to him, a country’s GDP and economy could only be said to be growing through the empowerment of the yet-to-be established industrialists and not adding to the already established. That amounts to choking up the economic base, narrows its spread and ultimately preventing possible growth in other sectors and human materials.

CACOL is therefore calling on the federal government to engage the main actors in our banking sector as a way of finding a means of overhauling and re-engineering the sector, so as to ensure that the economy is broad-based through its project financing policies. Banks owes it a social responsibility to make its services available in all forms to both the haves and the have-nots in the society. Prerequisites for qualifying for credit facilities should be relaxed be made more elastic in such a way that every innovative and developmental minds would cultivate a general sense of belonging in the economic arrangement of this country.

Finally, Mr. Adeniran would want those collaborators too exposed and punished.

TemitopeMacjob (Mrs)

Acting Media Officer, CACOL

5^thAugust, 2015.

August 5, 2015

CACOL BACKS PRESIDENT BUHARI”S MARCHING ORDER ON AUDIT QUERIES

The Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders CACOL has commended President’s Muhammadu Buhari’s move towards tackling administrative and bureaucratic corruption in government.This came on the heels of an order that was contained in a statement made available to journalists by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, that President Muhammadu Buhari has ordered that all audit queries be answered within 24 hours.

The President also directed the Auditor General of the Federation to resolve all outstanding audit queries within the next 30 days; an order that followed the President’s displeasure over the practice in which audit queries remained unanswered for long periods, sometimes running into years, under previous administrations.

The Executive Chairman of CACOL, Comrade Debo Adeniran, commended Buhari for living to his billing and for being proactive on his administration’s war against corruption at all levels of government.

“The President has proven to be a man that can be decisive when the occasion demands for it; it’s beginning to show that his promise to confront corruption headlong is not just a mere political gimmick”. Adeniran said.

Since it has been discovered that the very bulk of corrupt tendencies and execution start from the civil service and more often than not, corrupt politicians have been known to have received informal training or tutelage from top civil servants who have perfected the act of corruption. As technocrats, these top civil servants are well versed in the administration and management of accounting records, an advantage many use to perfect the art of doctoring and altering of records. They know not only how to perpetrate corrupt act but are also experts in concealing it.

So by tradition, they train elected and appointed political office holders on how to perpetrate corruption and cover their tracks. That is why when you hear of massive looting taking place in a particular section of governance by a minister or Head of a parastatal, one begins to wonder how such massive looting could have been made possible without the active connivance of these elements in the civil service because they are the ones responsible for the day-to-day operations and record-keeping.

We have also discovered that in most cases appointments to the ministries or parastatals come as a way of patronage to party faithfuls and not essentially on merit.So, in most cases, ministers appointed are strangers to the terrain; as such,many of them are being exposed to avenues that facilitate corrupt practices. It is these career civil servants that provide the in-house trainings; not only trainings to administer but also trainings to steal. They remain the engine-room of official corruption in government.

Basically, President Buhari’s directive is quite in order. Audit queries are not supposed to be kept in archives or in suspense but are to be responded to immediately. Even in a situation where by relevant documents and files to support or back up the reply are not immediately available, it should be so stated there in. Response is supposed to be spontaneous to audit queries; so as not give room for possible compromise.

“There is no justifiable reason for delays in answering queries because if anything is found amiss, it is the person in-charge that should provide the explanation”.

For those criticizing Buhari for restricting the probe exercise to Jonathan’s administration; they are certainly acting in ignorance; they do not know what is involved in probing. One major thing they fail to realize is that the first thing a fraudster does when carrying out his unwholesome act is to cover his track so as to make future discovery impossible. Beside doctoring and altering, perpetratro seven go as far as destroying relevant documents that could lead to discovering their acts. Given this scenario and the complexity inherent in the exercise of probing, therefore, Nigerians should not be surprised if probing Jonathan’s administration alone covers the entire 4-year tenure of Buhari’s administration.

President Buhari should remain undaunted and should not allow himself to be distracted in any way, in his quest to save Nigerian from being killed by corruption. He should confront, chase, nail, shame and possibly demolish corruption by whichever means possible. Nigerians expect no less.

Buhari should be more confident that Nigerians remains solidly behind him on any step taken by him to rid the society of the scourge called “corruption”.

Temitope Macjob (Mrs)

Acting Media Officer, CACOL

3^rd August, 2015.