Groups urge penalties against alleged inefficient corruption cases prosecutors

A Coalition of 40 Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) and some media practitioners have risen from a roundtable meeting sponsored by the British Council, through the Justice for All (J4A), and Department for International Development (DFID), platform, and convened by the Citizens Centre for Integrated Development and Social Rights (CCIDESOR), held at Primal Hotel, Ikeja, Lagos, at the weekend, urging the relevant authorities of the Federal Government, to sack all the prosecutors of the cases of corruption lingering in the various courts for over three years. They also called on the liaison of the Presidential Advisory committee on anti- corruption, with the media and the CSOs.

The groups who made their feelings known in a statement issued on Monday, and made available to The Guardian, insisted that the drive on anti- corruption should be taken to the local levels by the authorities, while the issue of anti- corruption should be consistently taken serious by the Muhammadu Buhari led administration.

The statement, which noted that the cases pending should be concluded with the zeal one time Inspector General of Police, Tafa Balogun was tried reads in part, “Private prosecutors who are unable to conclude corruption cases that have lingered for three years should be disengaged and replaced by more active ones and government should designate some existing courts across Nigeria to speedily conclude all lingering corruption cases.

Dr. Isabella Ada Ezeh, of Department of Theatre and Film Studies at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, in her presentation asked why the alleged N7 billion offered to religious leaders by the immediate past administration of Goodluck Jonathan, as alleged by Minister of Transport, Rotimi Amaechi, is yet to be probed and urged journalists covering such cases to logically and sequentially follow such cases till the end.