Benin – A coalition of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), in Benin on Wednesday called on the Federal Government to strengthen the nation’s anti-graft agencies to effectively tackle the menace of corruption.
They made the call at a rally to mark the 2015 World International Anti-Corruption Day.
The rally was organised by the African Network for Environment and Economic Justice (ANEEJ), Conference of Non-Governmental Organisations in collaboration with Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC).
Speaking at the occasion, ANEEJ Executive Director, Rev. David Ugolor, urged all hands to be on deck to ensure that Nigeria’s rating on corruption index by Transparency International was reduced.
He said that wide spread corruption had retarded the nation’s growth politically, socially and economically.
He said: “Today is an important day in the history of tackling corruption globally; we want to send a strong message to government that corruption is one of the instruments they use in sustaining the inequality in the country.
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“The level of poverty in the country is unacceptable and the only way to tackle poverty is to fight corruption, we also believe that the traditional approach in tackling corruption is failing.
“The anti-corruption agencies need to be strengthened, it is very clear that President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration has announced to the country that it is not going to be business as usual.
“However, one way to demonstrate this is to see that Nigeria improve in the ranking of transparency international where Nigeria is ranked as one of the corrupt countries in the World.’’
Ugolor called for concerted efforts to reduce corruption in the country in order to attract foreign direct investment to grow the economy and reduce poverty.
He said that there was wide spread corruption in the oil sector as well as in the procurement of arms to fight insurgency in the North-East.
Ugolor, who noted that the money earmarked to purchase weapons had ended up in the hands of some politicians, lamented that such corrupt persons were not being prosecuted.
“What we think that can solve the problem is not sending them – corrupt people to jail but to recover the stolen money and assets for meaningful development.
“We want to send a strong message within the premise of the UN General Assembly to fighting corruption globally that Nigeria’s asset starched in foreign banks across the world must be recovered.” he stated.
The Commissioner in charge of ICPC in Edo, Mr Olukile Olusesan, assured that all corrupt individuals irrespective of their social status would be made to face the full wrath of the law.
Olusesan promised that the fight against corruption would be sustained until the country was rid of it. (NAN)
