Former minister asks Buhari to begin anti-graft fight within government

• Worker gets 35-year jail term for N2.5m fraud
A former Minister of Interior, Comrade Abba Moro, has expressed disgust over President Muhammadu Buhari’s war on corruption.

Moro, who made the call in Makurdi while speaking to journalists, maintained that the All Progressives Congress (APC)-led Federal Government was only playing lip service to corruption.

Alleging that impunity was being perpetrated by the current administration, he said the anti-graft war was for a segment of the society.

Moro wondered why former governor of Benue State, Gabriel Suswam is facing prosecution whereas erstwhile Rivers State helmsman Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi who was also indicted by the Justice Elizabeth Kpojime Commission of Inquiry is serving the government as a minister.

His words: “If you leave Amaechi on the street and appoint him minister and you go after Suswam, then every right thinking person will know that something is wrong with the system.

“Make no mistake about it, I am for the fight against corruption but the fight should be holistic. Corruption should be fought from all fronts.”

However, a civil servant with Benin Owena River Basin Development Authority (BORBDA), Monday Isiorh Okoh, has been sentenced to 35 years in jail without an option of fine for mismanaging the agency’s N2.5 million.

Okoh, a Salary Officer with the parastatal, was arraigned before Justice E. Edigin of High Court 3, Benin City by the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related Offences Commission (ICPC) for defrauding the agency through multiple bank accounts.

The commission, in a 12-count charge, accused the convict of using his position to corruptly enrich himself, thereby committing an offence contrary to Section 19 of the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act 2000.

The prosecuting counsel, Peter Malan, had told the court that Okoh committed the offence between 2006 and 2007 by paying himself monthly salaries from the coffers of BORBDA through multiple bank accounts in First Bank, United Bank for Africa (UBA) and a community bank.