The
Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has said
detailed information about the 55 people who allegedly stole a total of
1.34 trillion Naira between 2006 and 2013 is available for anyone who
cares to seek such information.
The Minister, who made the clarification during a visit to the Leadership Hausa newspaper in Abuja on Tuesday
as part of his efforts to solicit the support of the media for the
fight against corruption, said checks at the courts and the
anti-corruption agencies would reveal the details of the cases, the
names of those involved and the amount.
“A lot of people have
challenged me, what is the source of your figures? I tell them they are
just not resourceful enough because these figures are already in the
public domain. All it takes for anybody that wants to check is to go and
see who are those that are being charged by the EFCC at various courts
between 2006 and 2013, you will get their names and the funds against
their names.
''The figures we have are the figures we have put
together based on our own research, and they are all available in the
public domain,'' he said.
Alhaji Mohammed said that in a normal
clime, the huge amount of funds frittered away by a few individuals
could have elicited public outrage, but that unfortunately, such
revelations were reduced to politicking in Nigeria.
He said the
consequences of corruption have manifested in the dearth of
infrastructure, poor social service delivery, as well as inequality and
poverty, which permeated the various strata of society.
The
Minister also expressed his disagreement with the people calling on the
President to soft-pedal in the fight against corruption by pardoning
those who embezzled public funds in the past, saying proffering such
advice amounts to corruption fighting back
The Minister explained
that the fight against corruption was not an afterthought but was indeed
one of the pillars upon which the President rode to power through the
popular mandate of the people, and promised that the war would be waged
within the ambit of the law.
Alhaji Mohamed therefore urged the
indigenous language newspapers to cooperate with the federal government
in its National Sensitization Campaign Against Corruption, while also
thanking them for their commitment to bridging the communication gap by
keeping those who could not understand the English Language well
informed.
The Editor of the Leadership Hausa Newspaper, Al-amin
Ciroma, thanked the Minister for the visit and said the antecedent of
the newspaper made it a natural ally in the fight against corruption.
Segun Adeyemi
SA to Hon MInister of Information and Culture
Abuja
Jan. 19th 2016
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