Okedara flays FG over looters’ list

A Global Research Fellow, International Center for Not for profit Law (ICNL) Washington DC, Solomon Okedara has criticized the Federal Government for releasing what he described as a political looters list.

The Lagos based legal practitioner in a statement lamented that the Federal Government ignored the decision of a Federal High Court, Lagos on July 2017 which ordered them to release to Nigerians information about the names of high ranking public officials from whom public funds were recovered and the circumstances under which such funds were recovered, as well as the exact amount of funds recovered from each public official.

According to him, the Attorney General of the Federation, Mr. Abubakar Malami (SAN), shortly after the judgment, declared that the Federal Government should publish the names of treasury looters intermittently after it must have met some conditions.

He noted that the wait for the names has been a mirage as nothing has happened for about nine months now until the list released by the Information Minister Lai Mohammed.

“Clearly, the lists released by the information minister appear to serve a political purpose only. Apparently, it came as a response to a remark by the leadership of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) that the Federal Government should go beyond mere rhetoric and media war in labeling the officials of past government as ‘looters’ but to specifically name the looters.

“If it took the Federal Government less than 24 hours to respond to PDP via a Press conference with a list of ‘looters’, one then wonders why has the same Federal government been unable to give effect to the judgment of a court of competent jurisdiction.

“Why does a name like Orji Kalu who is still standing trial for corruption charges is missing on the list? Is there a connection between his defection to APC and non-inclusion of his name on the list? How serious does the government take its institutions?