Abuja – The Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC), a civil society organisation, on Tuesday suggested a protection system for whistle-blowers in the renewed anti-graft war.
Addressing a news conference in Abuja, its Executive Director, Mr Auwal Musa, said that the protection system would go a long way to encourage people exposing corruption.
“The importance of adequate protection for whistle-blowers in the new anti-graft war is that uit will go a long way in exposing corrupt practices in the country.
“The absence of enabling legislation to protect whistle-blowers restricts sincere efforts at exposing corruption,’’ he said.
Musa said that whistle-blowers were hitherto perceived as disloyal employees and troublemakers.
“Reporting misconduct has led to some employees being victimised by their employers as well as fellow employees.
“Many latent whistle-blowers don’t blow their whistles on misconducts of individuals because they are not protected.
“We recall some cases of good Nigerians who blew their whistles on corrupt practices.
“The Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Niger Delta, Mrs Fatima Bamidele, exposed corruption and mismanagement of public funds in the ministry. She is now being threatened for doing that by those involved.
“Another member of staff of National Women Development Centre, Abuja was dismissed from service for exposing the alleged embezzlement of N300 million meant for poverty alleviation by some top officers in August 2011.’’
Musa said that in the case of Bamidele, she exposed the N803 million fraud by the top officials of the ministry.
He urged the National Assembly to hasten the passage of the Whistle-blower Protection Bill, if truly corruption must be fought by President Muhammadu Buhari.
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The CISLAC director said that there were many others who were targets of such threats that CSOs were unaware of.
He said that there were unreported cases of corruption worthy of exposure on daily basis but continuous victimisation, unjust treatments, fear of dismissal and lack of protection were encumbrances.
He called on Buhari to bring to book all persons involved in looting of public funds in the country.
Mr Ezenwa Nwagwu, Co-convener of the conference, said that anti-corruption fight had become a booming business industry for some people in the country.
According to him, some go under the name of civil society organisation to collect money from corrupt persons in the name of protecting them.
“We don’t support corruption. We are solemnly behind President Buhari in his fight against corruption in the country and canvass that whistle-blowers be encouraged,’’ Nwagwu said.
He said that corruption had destroyed the country and that the people needed to join hands in fighting it. (NAN)