Abuja – Democratic Progressive Movement (DPM), an NGO, has called on the Federal Government to establish special courts to guarantee speedy prosecution of corruption cases in the country.
The National Chairman of the group, Rev. Collins Edebiri, made the call on Tuesday in Abuja while addressing newsmen at the end of an anti-corruption rally staged by the group.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that DPM is a non-partisan coalition of Nigerians, at home and abroad, formed to pressurise leaders at different levels of government to fast-track development of the country.
Edebiri said that the fight against corruption would be more successful when special courts were established and new laws enacted to ensure accelerated hearing of corruption-related cases.
He said: “we need to begin to think about laws that will set up special courts to deal with corruption cases. We need those special courts to start now.
“We are also calling on the National Assembly as a matter of urgency to enact law for the establishment of special anti-corruption courts.
“When you have special courts with special laws, then you will deal with these matters expeditiously.
“If we do that then we can fairly hear corruption cases expeditiously to ensure quick dispensation of justice,” he said.
The chairman also called for the imposition of sanctions barring corrupt government officials from holding public office for the remaining part of their life.
He urged the government to recover all stolen funds and ensure that they were judiciously used for the development of those sectors that have direct impact on the masses.
“There is no use a man stealing billions; you take him to court; he is happy to stay there for three years and come and he still have our wealth in his possession.
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“ The first step is to recover our money from the culprits, give them the appropriate sentences and then ban them from holding public offices for life.
“We don’t even want them to dance back into the system again. We are tired of people who are thieves coming back and being our rulers.
“So, we should ban them out of the political space so that we begin to send the right messages across that it is no not business as usual.
Edebiri commended the anti-corruption drive of the present administration and urged Nigerians to support the government in order to achieve meaningful development for the country.
He, however, urged the government to ensure that the war against corruption allowed all Nigerians the right to freedom of expression within the nation’s democratic space. (NAN)