A PRO-democracy non-governmental organisation, Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), has described as selective and unfair, the decision of President Muhammadu Buhari to exclusively probe the immediate past administration led by former President Goodluck Jonathan over alleged acts of corruption.

HURIWA said the probe must be broadened to include all successive federal administrations since 1979 till May 29, 2015 for it to be credible. In a statement jointly signed by its National Coordinator, Emmanuel Onwubiko, and National Media Affairs Director, Miss Zainab Yusuf, HURIWA said the laws of natural justice and morality are against any governmental policy that would be targeted at a selected group of persons to the exclusion of others particularly when public corruption and graft reportedly pervaded public and political spaces during the military regimes of Gen.

Ibrahim Babangida and the late Gen. Sani Abacha.  “Corruption indeed became a general theme of debates as far back as 1983 when some politicians abused import licences and waivers to import rice and even the national chairman of the then ruling party, National Party of Nigeria (NPN), was accused of large scale insider abuses which included the importing of customised champagnes for his birthday bashes,” HURIWA explained.

It added: “If any sound, deliberate, articulate, forensic, all-inclusive, dispassionate and unbiased investigations of graft and alleged heist of public funds by government officials is to be conducted, then this government should commence the probe from the genesis of corruption in Nigeria and not focus exclusively on the immediate past administration of President Jonathan.

Any investigations that are not all inclusive is nothing but selective and politically motivated and therefore renders any expected outcomes null, void and vindictive.” The Rights group admonished the current government to adopt comprehensive and broad-based non-partisan approaches to the anti-graft war.

It called for fundamental changes in the hierarchies of the anti graft agencies for efficiency and effectiveness. “The current leaderships of the anti-graft bodies are compromised, corrupt and ineffective and must be changed and replaced with independent-minded experts that will wage an all out anti-corruption war devoid of partisanship and eye service as is currently obtained. You can’t fight impunity with impunity,” HURIWA noted.