The Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders (CACOL), has condemned the victimization and humiliation of heads of anti-graft agencies by both the executive and legislative arms of the federal government.

President Muhammadu Buhari had on Monday 9^th of November, 2015 announced the unceremonious removal of the Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Mr. Ibrahim Lamorde, thus bringing his reign as the country’s anti-graft head to an abrupt end amid, albeit, fraud allegations. Lamorde’s sacking came few weeks to the end of his four-year tenure.

It’s worth recalling that CACOL once called on the Federal Government to refrain from supporting the humiliation of Heads of anti-graft agencies and panels, noting that such practices is fast becoming a regular trend especially when highly placed public exposed person is under investigation or prosecution.

The Executive Chairman, Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders CACOL, Mr. Debo Adeniran, said, “One thing that such reckless sacking would engender is the fear of good people serving at anti-corruption, investigative panels or regulatory agencies as chairman or head. It has been established that when you fight corruption, corruption fights back and these corrupt elements are ruthless when they have to fight back.’’

Adeniran also expressed dissatisfaction over the sacking of Lamorde just days before the expiration of his tenure as the EFCC chairman, “more so when he had not been found guilty of any wrongdoing in spite of the allegations against him. If the system has tolerated him up till this point, why wouldn’t they give him the couple of days before the expiration of his tenure?

“We should recall that both Nuhu Ribadu and Mrs Farida Waziri were humiliated out of office in similar circumstances while investigation and prosecution of some highly placed government officials both at the national and state levels were going on. The same pattern plays out in the National Assembly where heads of committees that tried to probe corruption allegations have been humiliated one way or the other.”

Speaking further the anti-corruption crusader sited a handful of experiences; he noted that “apart from Nuhu Ribadu and Madam Farida Waziri, we have Hon. Ndudi Elumelu who headed a similar probe into the power sector (NIPP); Herman Hembe, the Chairman of House of Representatives Capital Market Committee probing the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC); Faruk Lawal who probed the issue of Petroleum subsidy; Sam Saba, Chairman of Code of Conduct Bureau, was also probed while a case of false assets declaration was going on at the Code of Conduct Tribunal against the Senate President and recently, a group, Mission for Peace and Development Initiative, was reported to have filed a suit before the Federal High Court, Abuja seeking an order removing the Chairman of the Code of Conduct Tribunal, Justice Danladi Umar, on grounds of alleged corruption.

“If in the course of performing their statutory duties, they are accused of wrong doings, they should be made to complete the assignments they are handling, get to a logical conclusion before they are prosecuted or made to quit the office because quitting the office abruptly will be more of advantage to the accused persons than to the cause of justice. And getting the heads of these agencies and panels out of the way might be the only reason why the complainant or their cronies could have accused the heads of agencies investigating or prosecuting them so that the process of getting the criminals diligently investigated and prosecuted may be truncated”. Adeniran stressed.

Emphasizing that his Coalition is not holding brief for Larmode, or for these heads of agencies and panels, we believe that the substance of their findings i.e the cases they are pursuing before their own issues came up should be prosecuted first before they are hunted. While those that were been investigated never faced the law, it is those who headed the body that investigated them that were harassed and maybe humiliated into submission. If such a practice continues, people of good conscience would not want to serve in such agencies and panels as nobody would want to commit his life and career to projects that is most likely to ruin such life and career.” “Interestingly”, Adeniran continued, “none of such so-removed heads of anti-graft institutions had been found truly guilty of the charges leveled against them till date!”

“These heads of agencies and panels could have been given the benefit of the doubt; if they had earlier been found wanting they would not have been appointed to head such sensitive bodies where high level of integrity is required. The confidence of integrity that was reposed in them should be allowed to hold sway until the contrary is proven. The anti-corruption war in Nigeria can neither be effective nor sustained where there is no security of tenure and the leaders of the anti-corruption agencies are subjected to summary dismissal.” Adeniran concluded.

Temitope Macjob

Acting Media Officer, CACOL

temitope@thehumanitycentre.org

cacolc@yahoo.com.

10th November, 2015.

For more press releases and statements, please visit our website at

www.corruptionwatchng.com, www.cwatch.thehumanitycentre.org

PRESS RELEASE

The Coalition against Corrupt Leaders CACOL has demanded that cases of those that have been alleged and are being investigated or prosecuted of corruption crimes in the country, despite the removal of the Chairman of EFCC, Ibrahim Larmode and the weighty allegations leveled against the Chairman of Code of Conduct Bureau and the Chairman of Code of Conduct Tribunal, must go on.

Speaking on behalf of the Coalition, the Executive Chairman, Comrade Debo Adeniran expressed the opinion that the Coalition, though not in support of the EFCC Chairman’s sudden removal believes that the president has the prerogative to determine who he hires or fires; but in so doing, he should replace them immediately.

“Larmode’s removal could not have been surprising because his two predecessors Mallam Nuhu Ribadu and Madam Farida Waziri were removed unceremoniously the same way after being accused of engaging in corrupt practices, especially by those powerful toes they stepped on. However, it is not really correct for the regime to engage in humiliation of their appointees; what was required was for the supervising Ministry and relevant Committees of the National Assembly to diligently play their oversight function on the agencies, all the allegations raised could have been discovered, nipped in the buds or prosecuted, during the period such suspects are running the agency and not when powerful people are being investigated or prosecuted by them.”

While expressing his reservation, the anti-corruption crusader noted that “what has happened to three Chairmen of the EFCC is not going to encourage people of good conscience to work in such an institution where there is no security of tenure. We know that nobody is infallible and anybody could commit any offence but we also know that we cannot pre-determine what the mind of an individual can dictate until it has manifested some traits that are not commensurate with the expectation of the office its holding.

“Though we also agree that the Chairman of the Code of Conduct Tribunal, CCT, Justice Danladi Umar is no longer fit and proper to continue in his office, the cases he is handling should not be stopped or allowed to suffer long delay. It is expected that between now and tomorrow morning when the Senate President Bukola Saraki is billed to appear before the Tribunal, another trial judge should have been properly briefed to continue the trial seamlessly.”

According to Adeniran, “the allegations against the EFCC, CCB and CCT could be a deliberate ploy, because it is too coincidental to be accidental that the allegations are coming up when the Senate President and his spouse are being investigated and tried. Even some of the senators that accompanied the Senate President to the court are also suspected to have been in custody of the pieces of evidence that are being used against the anti-corruption agencies.”

Speaking further, he noted that, “no matter how weighty the evidences against corruption criminals are adopted, there must be due diligence in its investigation and criminals must be prosecuted. Our argument is that the first to be accused should be the first to be conclusively investigated and prosecuted without allowing the trial of the hunter to allow the hunted escape justice.”

In conclusion, Adeniran stressed that “it is to the advantage of the society that criminals quarrel among themselves with a view to exposing each other, but that a criminal exposes another criminal should not preclude any one of them from being adequately punished for the individual or collective roles they play in the execution of the alleged crimes; that is the only way by which we will get to the end of criminal activities within our society.”

Temitope Macjob

Acting Media Officer, CACOL

temitope@thehumanitycentre.org

cacolc@yahoo.com.

11th November, 2015.

                        For more press releases and statements, please visit our website at

www.corruptionwatchng.com, www.cwatch.thehumanitycentre.org

PRESS RELEASE

The Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders CACOL, has lauded IG Arase’s speedy intervention in the case of tortured journalist and condemned the recent heightened police harassments on civilians, urging him not to relent until the average policeman becomes a true friend of the people.

The Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Solomon Arase, according to a media release has queried the Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Fatai Owoseni, over the torture of Lagos-based journalist, Mr. Femi Owolabi, and others.

The victim, Owolabi and 30 other victims was reported on PUNCH Newspaper to have been arrested by policemen in mufti in front of a night club in the FESTAC area of the state and tortured for several hours at the State Department of Criminal Investigation and were released only after the policemen had extorted money from them. A day after it was reported, It was learnt that the Force Headquarters, Abuja, had reached out to the journalist and ordered a full-scale investigation into the matter; a development which led to the IG giving the Lagos police boss 48 hours to investigate what happened with a view to arresting the culprits.

Following the PUNCH publication, the Lagos police high command tendered an apology to Owolabi, ordered the arrest of the nine policemen involved and directed that they undergo an orderly room trial. The Journalist, Owolabi, according to a report on Saturday PUNCH of November 14, 2015 has said that he is not interested in compensation, but wanted the policemen responsible for his ordeal punished. The Lagos CP was reported to have promptly responded to the IG’s query with a recommendation that some of the police officers be charged with armed robbery

The Executive Chairman of CACOL, Comrade Debo Adeniran, in his reaction, commended the speedy intervention of the Abuja and Lagos Command Police Headquarters, in the matter, as a right step to fish out and deter violators of the rights of the populace. He said “the media reports replete with cases of extra-judicial killings, harassments, robbery, torturing etc have risen remarkably in recent times because perpetrators are hardly brought to book. Recent happenings have shown that families of victims are either intimidated by the police or are just too afraid to speak. Most times, police deliberately messes up investigation by encouraging families of the victims to hurriedly bury their murdered relatives, thus truncating the process of investigation through autopsy – all in an effort to pervert justice while on other occasions they tend to disclaim killer cops as impostors in police uniform and refuse to investigate.”

According to him, “What the police men did to the journalist and others involved is total human right abuse and should not be condoned. This case brings to focus the high-handedness and illegal operations conducted by Nigerian policemen, which are largely unreported by victims. It is necessary that the Lagos State Commissioner of Police takes necessary action not only by fishing and trying the police officers behind the torturing of Mr. Femi Owolabi and 30 others but make sure they are prosecuted by competent court of law and if found guilty, adequately punished.” He also agitated for adequate compensation for the Journalist and other victims for infringement on their fundamental human rights.

Assessing the implication, the human right activist averred that repeated assaults and attacks on innocent citizens have aroused anger and fear across the country. One main source of this ugly trend has been ascribed to the poor and inadequate training and orientation on police-public relationship.

Adeniran, therefore, stressed that the police must be made to respect the dignity of the human person in the citizens they are paid to protect, through a well-organized civil response to the actions of some psychotic folks in their midst. Police brutality continues to sour the relationship between members of the public and the force in Nigeria. ‘Police are your friends’ slogan now appears only as a parody of the reality of the police-public relationship.

“There is the need for citizen’s lives to be protected by security agencies hence a stop must be put to torturing, robbery, harassment and use of live bullet on innocent and harmless citizens. The police must be made to realize that they are employed and paid to protect and not to torture and kill the people. The only excuse for the use of force is exclusively against criminals and this should only be permitted as an act of self-defense. We however believe the IG Arase’s effort at cleansing the image of the police could never be attained with those identified bad eggs still serving in the Force.”

Adeniran concluded by calling the attention of the Nigeria Police to the spate of uncivil and unprofessional behaviours capable of debasing the image and profile of the force in the country and urged the Inspector-General of Police to continually embark on measures that will rid the Force of the unrepentant bad eggs within its rank.

Temitope Macjob

Acting Media Officer, CACOL

temitope@thehumanitycentre.org

cacolc@yahoo.com.

9^th November, 2015.

For more press releases and statements, please visit our website at

www.corruptionwatchng.com, www.cwatch.thehumanitycentre.org

PRESS RELEASE

The Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders CACOL, has lashed out at the Senators over the rejection of the motion for the payment of N5, 000 stipend to each jobless Nigerian and on the honourable members of House of Representatives over the reported ongoing rift that is almost tearing the lower federal legislature apart in the past few days.

Media information has it that the disturbing development has led to mass resignation by a good number of appointed members of some standing committees while many others are threatening to follow suit. The cause of the rift, according to reports, is not unconnected with the disgruntled honourable members’ dissatisfaction with their appointment into certain house committees. They were alleged to have protested against the manner with which the appointments were made by the honourable speaker, The Rt. Honourable Yakubu Dogara.

Led by the House Leader, Honourable Femi Gbajabiamila, the protesting members had faulted the lopsidedness in the appointments. Honourable Gbajabiamila particularly faulted the speaker for not consulting him as expected before the list was forwarded – an action he considered as a clear deviation from the normal practice and disrespectful to his office as the House Leader. Those who resigned had complained that the speaker had deliberately sidelined them from those committees they described as ‘juicy’.

Senators of the All Progressives Party and their Peoples Democratic Party counterparts were also reported to have disagreed on the payment of N5,000 monthly stipend to each unemployed Nigerian youth. The motion which was raised by the Peoples Democratic Party senator representing the Federal Capital Territory, Philip Aduda, urged the President Muhammadu Buhari-led Federal Government to fulfill its campaign promise, without further delay, the N5 ,000 monthly allowance to every unemployed youth nationwide.

Debo Adeniran, the Executive Chairman of the Coalition lamented over what he described as “a shameless display of sheer opportunism by our ‘honourable’ law-makers. It’s disturbing seeing the frequency at which these people fight for issues bordering on their selfish gains. How very impressive it would have been if they take issues of national interest with the same zeal and seriousness.

“Thanks to members of lower legislative chamber; at least, we are now being made to know that certain committees are ‘juicier’ than the others. Are we not now beginning to understand better that all the claims by these people that ‘the driving motive behind their contesting for legislative positions is basically to serve the nation and to loyally represent their respective constituencies’ have been nothing but mere lip service; otherwise, why should they be selective and not just take whatever was given and get to work for the nation, in whatever capacity they find themselves? It’s getting clearer by the day that Nigerians still have to continue the long wait for that time to come when people seeking political offices would be doing so, strictly altruistic, out of the desire to serve the nation and not to please themselves.

Commenting on the senators’ rejection of the monthly allowance to the unemployed youth, Adeniran opined that “since the authorities know the number of graduates of different higher institutions in the country, they would have considered it as a burden to carry and should have created workplaces for them.” This he continued, “is the more reason why we want the government to create business friendly environment, encourage cottage industries for those with requisite capacity and establish more industries and central vocational centers that would absorb the unemployed graduates and competent artisans.”

Speaking further Adeniran stressed, “The fact that all these promises, the monthly allowance for the unemployed inclusive, were voluntarily made by the APC during its electioneering campaign makes it incumbent on it to honour the promises without any further excuses whatsoever, now that it is in power. No excuse will be good enough.”

As for the monthly allowance, the CACOL boss asserted, “all that is now expected of the APC-led government is to begin to collate necessary data with a view to determining the accurate population of potential beneficiaries of this and all other of its campaign promises and the cost implication and commence the implementation without further ado. However, giving such paltry sum of money to Nigerian youths will not solve their problems outright. Government should be reminded that it has to create the enabling environment for employment generation and ensure that business set-up, maintenance and sustenance are enhanced by government policies, which will include provision of micro-credit, reduction in taxes and rates payable, and moratorium for new business loans.” He concluded.

Temitope Macjob

Acting Media Officer, CACOL

temitope@thehumanitycentre.org

cacolc@yahoo.com.

5^th November, 2015.

For more press releases and statements, please visit our website at

www.corruptionwatchng.com, www.cwatch.thehumanitycentre.org

PRESS RELEASE

The Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders (CACOL), in reaction to a media report, has condemned in strong terms, the apparent indecorous and rascally behaviours of a group of senators numbering about 40 who had accompanied the Senate President Bukola Saraki to the Code of Conduct Tribunal on Thursday, November 5, 2015, to answer to charges of false declaration of assets preferred against the latter.

The law-makers, according to the Coalition, who took their seats in the tribunal chambers in obvious bid to intimidate the Tribunal and show of solidarity with the senate president, were reported to have engaged in acts considered indecorous as well as demeaning to their calling as senior law-makers of our dear country.

They allegedly created a rather rowdy atmosphere at the tribunal as they intermittently disrupted proceedings by either shouting down presentations by the prosecution counsels or making unsavoury and yet noisy comments in the process. The situation reportedly got to an unbearable point at which the leading prosecution counsel was forced to remind them that the tribunal should not be treated like the senate floor where ‘disorderly’ behaviours are tolerated – all in the name of immunity.

It’s worth recalling that CACOL once condemned this show of shame in which senate proceedings had to be locked down or postponed each time the senate president or his wife had to, either appear before the court or to honour a mere invitation by any agency of the state.

The Chairman of the Coalition, Comrade Debo Adeniran recalled with sadness and lamented, “The other day, as many as 80 senators abandoned their constitutional legislative duty, for which they were voted and paid, to accompany the senate president to the EFCC’s office. At some other time, the same shameless and obviously ‘jobless’ senators played the ‘aides-de-camp’ to the senate president’s wife on her visit to the anti-corruption agency, on invitation to be interrogated for her roles in corruption allegations. What a show of shame and gross irresponsibility!

“Besides that, Adeniran added, “even if they had shamelessly made their appearance in the tribunal chambers, should they, as ‘distinguished’ senators of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, not conduct themselves in a most honourable manner and accord due respect to law and justice? As senior law-makers, they, presupposedly, should constitute an epitome of decency, decorum and civility and exemplary in the way they demonstrate respect for the constitution which they swore to uphold and defend at all times.”

“CACOL, therefore, calls on well-meaning Nigerians to rise up and condemn what is fast becoming a fashion by these law-makers; to be abandoning their duty post at will for sheer mundane activities that are not in any way relevant to their assigned constitutional responsibility. Nigerians voted them in and should therefore be able to call them to order whenever they appear to be overstepping their bounds. We cannot continue to have our Houses of Law occupied by lawless, indolent persons who dress themselves in the garb of outlaws,” Adeniran admonished.

Temitope Macjob

Acting Media Officer, CACOL

temitope@thehumanitycentre.org

cacolc@yahoo.com.

6^th November, 2015.

For more press releases and statements, please visit our website at

www.corruptionwatchng.com, www.cwatch.thehumanitycentre.org