Coalition indicts Jonathan on Buhari’s anti-corruption war

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NIGERIA: FROM the civil society groups have come an allegation against immediate past President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan.

The coalition accused Jonathan of underground moves to frustrate the anti-corruption war of President Muhammadu Buhari.

The coalition made the allegation in Lagos on Tuesday, saying that the call for probe to begin from independence and to cover all federal, regional and state governments was diversionary.

“Our response to this demand and opinion, unfortunately being led by former President Jonathan, is that it is a recipe for a do-nothing agenda against corruption,” the coalition said in a joint statement read by the Chairman, Civil Society Network Against Corruption, Mr. Olanrewaju Suraju.

Also in attendance at the briefing were Adeola Soetan of the Democracy Vanguard, Debo Adeniran from the Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders, Wale Adeoye, representing the Journalists for Democratic Rights, and Sina Odugbemi of the Value and Integrity Group.

The body stressed that no country can record growth and development when “high profile thieves” were parading themselves as leaders and featuring in the political arena with impunity.

The coalition said: “A serious nation must start corruption fight from somewhere concretely. Instead of running after dead leaders’ record of service, a serious government must commence its probe with the‎ records of service of its immediate predecessor and in the course of this: findings from such probe may ultimately lead to further probes of other previous administrations.

“That is common sense. Meanwhile, there are ongoing cases of corruption that cannot be side-tracked, like the Halliburton probe, by the current government.”

It stressed: “It is expected that many powerful rogues who have had their hands, beards, robes and names soiled or perceived to be tainted will obviously feel the intensity of the anti-corruption war and definitely fight back by all legitimate and illegitimate means possible under any subterfuge in order to frustrate the ethical revolution to sanitize governance in Nigeria.”

The body of activists castigated the Peace Committee, headed by ex-Head of State, Gen. Abdulsalam Abubakar, describing it as “emergency apostles of peace and due process.”

It stressed: “The president’s actions so far in this corruption crusade have justified his assurance and the court is there for anyone who feels his right to fair trial has been or about to be abridged.

“We consider this pre-emptive cry as self-preservation and a subtle blackmail against corruption trial and an attempt to confer immunity against investigation and prosecution of suspected corrupt officials of the immediate past regime of which some of them are beneficiaries of the huge mismanagement under Jonathan.”

“Instead of limiting their ‘due process crusade’ to cover only the corrupt, politically-exposed persons who are yet to be arrested or even prosecuted, we appeal to these ‘due process apostles’ to take their due process concern to various prisons in Nigeria to help free petty thieves and suspects who are languishing in jail, many of them victims of ‘undue process’ of the warped justice system,” the coalition said.

“Due process should not be the exclusive privilege of the privilege class,” it added.

“We agree that in any genuine fight against corruption, there should not be friend or foe, and no selectivity or privilege of association,” the groups maintained, while adding: “But it is just natural that since the PDP was in power for sixteen years at the federal and most state governments, the preponderance of suspected corrupt government officials being investigated or about to be investigated and prosecuted will most likely come from PDP based on the ruinous ways they ran the country when the party was in power.”

It added: “We hasten to add that beyond calling for the investigation and prosecution of past and present government officials from the ruling APC, the PDP should tender tangible, tenable, and indicting documents against suspected APC or any other party stalwarts.

“The ‘my son is not the only thief’ approach of the party is unhelpful of corruption fight,” it said.

‎The coalition, which said that it wasn’t against the establishment of specialized courts for corruption-related cases in order to have a fair and speedy trial of corruption cases, declared that members of the National Assembly must cut their salary and allowances.

The lawmakers should also support the ongoing war against corruption in view of the need for sustained ethical revolution of the present regime, the coalition demanded.