The Centre for Anti-Corruption and Open Leadership, CACOL has bemoaned the spate of insecurity in the country and call on the government to rise to the occasion and ensure the security of lives and properties of Nigerians.
In a release issued by its Director, Administration and Programmes, Tola Oresanwo on behalf of the organization’s Chairman, Mr. Debo Adeniran he stated, “In the last couple of weeks the spate of insecurity in the land had been on the increase. We are daily been faced with gory sights of hapless Nigerian being either killed or kidnapped in various parts of the country”.
This week alone, there have been multiple attacks on lives and properties in the country which claimed at least 15 cops, five soldiers, and 20 civilians. This was apart from the killing of abducted students of Greenfield University in Kaduna, amongst other callousness freely exhibited by either terrorists or bandits in different parts of the country.
From all indications, it could be noticed that there is gross darkness in the land when it comes to security of lives and properties in the country today. From the north to the east the story is the same. There is virtually no safe haven when it comes to security in the country today.
Since the unfortunate outbreak of insurgency in the country, which has since risen to astronomical level Nigerians of different hues and shades have expressed one form of disenchantment or the other as it concerns their fears over the state of helplessness and insecurity that have pervaded the land. It is noteworthy that, many Nigerians including senators and governors have been calling on the President, to seek foreign help to put a stop to the ceaseless bloodshed and kidnappings nationwide.
The Borno State Governor, Babagana Zulum, his Niger State counterpart, Sani Bello and Samuel Ortom of Benue State, in separate interviews warned that insecurity in the country was getting out of control. The governors, therefore, urged the Federal Government to act fast as 21 people were killed across the country.
The insecurity in Niger State was brought to the fore at the Senate on Tuesday as Senator Musa in his motion corroborated the governor’s statement, saying many communities in the state were under the control of Boko Haram. He said, “About 42 communities across the two local government areas of Shiroro and Munya have so far fallen under the Boko Haram control with about 5,000 villagers already displaced in the last three days. They have kidnapped many and their wives seized from them and forcefully attached to Boko Haram members”.
“This is why CACOL, as a civil society organization is lending its voice to the call on the President who incidentally is the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces to fully take charge of the appalling security situation in the country. The primary responsibility of government is to secure the lives and properties of its citizens and the President cannot shy away from this responsibility. The whole security architecture of the country should be rejig and if need be, the President should not be too arrogant to seek foreign help who can assist with the needed personnel and technological knowhow needed to fight this seemingly insurmountable battle.
The CACOL Boss added, “The current security challenge being faced by the country, though sad and unfortunate, is one burden too heavy to bear by the people who are already confronted with dilapidated social infrastructures, power outage, low disposable income and corruption in high places. It therefore offers us an another opportunity to refocus this nation and salvage it from its age-long path to perdition that makes its teeming population to hibernate between hopelessness and disillusionment, thereby jeopardizing a fulfillment of its remarkable possibilities that should make it take its rightful place amongst nations.”
President and Commander-In-Chief of the Armed Forces
Aso Rock Villa, 3 Arms Zone
Garki – Abuja
Federal Republic of Nigeria
Your Excellency,
We have observed keenly the events of past weeks concerning the allegations levelled against the incumbent Minister of Communication and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami. We have tried as much as possible to listen to arguments in favour of and against his sack as a Minister of the Federal Republic.
It is in view of the foregoing that we have taken a position on the matter based on the various allegations as stated below:
ü In April 2021, a publication by an online media company linked Pantami to the then leader of Boko Haram, Mohammed Yusuf as allies, and that Pantami has been listed by the American Government under its terrorist watch list.
ü There are series of audio and video messages of Pantami, which has gone viral on social media, in which he publicly supported the activities of Taliban and Al-Qaida.
ü There has been a steady stream of new evidence of the views he held in the past and the latest are documents that appeared online recently. The documents are purportedly from a 2010 meeting he chaired at the Jama’atu Nasril Islam (JNI), a top Islamic body, where it was agreed that Christians should be prohibited from building churches in city centres across northern Nigeria, which has a majority Muslim population although millions of Christians also live there.
ü Among other things, he also said, “Oh God, give victory to the Taliban and to al-Qaeda,” and, “This jihad is an obligation for every single believer, especially in Nigeria.” In another, he reportedly endorsed the killing of “unbelievers.”
ü In a 2006 speech, Mr Pantami publicly offered his condolences after the death of al-Qaeda’s leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
ü In one audio clip, where he talks about the Nigerian army’s war against Boko Haram, he appears to be on the verge of tears as he passionately describes the militants as “our Muslim brothers” who did not deserve to be “killed like pigs”.
ü In another audio recording, he declares he is always happy when infidels are massacred.
ü Audio and video recordings have also emerged of Mr Pantami’s fiery prayers and sermons at different stages of his career as an imam. In one sermon he volunteered to lead a force of the Sharia police, Hisbah, to Shendam in Plateau state, where there had been a deadly religious conflict, to fight in defence of the Muslims. So many more extremist views have been attributed to Pantami.
He has not denied the authenticity of these texts, audio and video clips. In his defence, Pantami argues that he has repented; that he erred as an innocent youth.
After the backlash and calls for his resignation continued, Pantami disavowed the statements on April 17, saying “some of the comments I made some years ago that are generating controversies now were based on my understanding of religious issues at the time, and I have changed several positions taken in the past based on new evidence and maturity.”
Mr. President, we wish to state unequivocally that the fact that Pantami has developed the level of orientation that made him uttered those grievous words and statements as stated above, cannot be wished away by mere recanting which some people in your cabinet are claiming he has done.
Ideological issues are ingrained in the mind of those who pursue it. Even when they denounce it they are not to be trusted because they can always go back to that conviction that led them into accepting that extremism and for somebody who has said that people should be killed and that he is happy when he sees that and who has supported terrorists in the past, we want to believe that it cannot get out of his mind so easily.
Moreover, due to the sensitiveness of the Ministry that he is supervising, he can provide information about anybody to the terrorists, because terrorists don’t work with their foot soldiers alone, they also work with those who pretend to be part and parcel of the decent society and Patami can be some of those conduit pipe through which information are streamed to them.
Furthermore, in the area of the security system, the ministry also could have a link with the way security communication are being organised and deployed and Pantami could sabotage the process by facilitating access to the terrorists to kind of jam the communication system of the military and other security agencies in the country.
Your Excellency, we are of the opinion that Pantami is a dangerous person that ought not to be a minister of the Federal Republic if all the agencies of government that screened ministerial nominees including the Senate and the State Security Service carried out their due diligence before he was sworn in as a Minister.
A situation whereby the Senate would ask a Ministerial Nominee to take a bow showed the level of mediocrity among those in government considering the fact that governance is a serious administrative endeavour guided by international best practices. He is indeed one of the tares sown by the enemies of the country in your cabinet when Your Excellency was asleep. His continued presence in your cabinet is like leaving a venomous snake under the bed and someone goes to sleep or leaving a spark of fire on the roof and someone goes to sleep. He is dangerous to the peace and security of Nigeria, he is a security risk to the nation. Even if he has denounced his extremist orientation, our mind would only be at rest if he is removed.
Therefore, we are aligning with calls on your office to immediately swing into action by removing and sacking Isa Pantami as Minister of Communication and Digital Economy now and also ask the Department of State Services to investigate him!
The Centre for Anti-Corruption and Open Leadership, CACOL, has made its support known to the Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu led administration in Lagos State for signing the Public Complaints and Anti-Corruption Commission Bill 2021 into law.
In a release issued by CACOL’s Director of Administration and Programmes, Tola Oresanwo, on behalf of the Chairman of the Centre, Mr. Debo Adeniran, he noted, “We observed with keen interest the fulfillment of one of his promises made to the good people of the state during his inauguration as the Governor of Lagos state, by Babajide Sanwo-Olu, whereby he insisted his administration would be accountable and responsible for the appropriation of the state’s resources. To make good his promise, the governor signed a law creating the new anti graft body on Monday, several days after Lagos’ parliament approved the bill”.
The governor was quoted as saying “the Public Complaints and Anti-Corruption Commission Law, 2021, showed the state government’s effort towards entrenching accountability in governance. The bill establishing Public Complaints and Anti-Corruption Commission is important legislation critical to the delivery of quality services to the citizens. When we came in, we said we would be accountable and responsible for the appropriation of the state’s resources. We want to stand in front of the citizens to give an account of how public funds are being spent. To give credence to this promise, the executive arm initiated the bill and sent it to the Assembly for approval. We believe that this law would not only ensure accountability of public funds, but also promote dialogue among public officers to keep the trust of the people in the discharge of their duties in line with transparency. The anti-corruption commission will ensure that all approved activities are implemented in accordance with budgetary allocation.”
The anti-corruption Czar said “Against this background, we could see how the Anti corruption Commission would be the ‘brainbox’ or engine room of the state government in the fight against corruption in the state, especially as they relate to government and public officials and CACOL, as an anti-corruption group with its component organizations would solidly lend its unalloyed support in this patriotic duty, as the entire world focus on the nation to overcome the destructive ogre of corruption within the shortest time possible.”
“We at CACOL have been a frontline campaigner against corruption in Lagos State in particular and the nation in general. Our publication ‘Lagos Open parliament’ (LOP) now in its seventh series is been used as an evaluation of the level of budget implementation with regard to infrastructural development in Lagos State from time to time”.
The CACOL Boss added, “We will like to commend the Sanwo-Olu led administration in Lagos state for taking this bold step aimed at curbing corruption in government in the state. We hope the anti-corruption commission would be independent, autonomous, self-governing, unbiased and will not be an appendage of the Executive arm of the state government in the discharge of its statutory duties. We also believed the state government would give the commission all the needed financial, human and material support in order for the commission to succeed”.
“We also hope the new anti-graft agency would intensify efforts in tracking, investigation, arraignment and effective prosecution of all corrupt officials to avert a situation whereby the court would be left with no other choice than to order the release of a corrupt public officials, for lack of proper prosecution or perpetual detention without trial”, he added.
On Monday, 9th April, 2018, the Nigerian and international community of activists were jolted with rude shock of sudden death of Comrade Olawale Salami familiarly called by all as the ‘Don’. A perplexing death coming almost immediately after the celebration of his fiftieth years of sojourn on mother earth on Saturday, 24th March, 2018.
He was not the first Nigerian of the Leftist persuasion to transit to the beyond, nor would his demise be the last of his ideological school of thought. However, by his living, he demonstrated what it truly means to live honestly and in service to humanity. In simpler terms, he spent his entire short adult life trying to make the world as he knew it, a better place for generations yet unborn.
Born in the late 1960’s, at a time when the country was trying to find her footing amongst other nations of the world, having secured her ‘flag independence’ and lowered the Union Jack, less than 10 years ago, and also witnessed its first political disruption through a military coup de tat that later snowballed into an unnecessary civil war leading to the death of over one million Nigerians on both divides, he grew up with an experience of a country that was so full of potentialities and possibilities that, as at her independence in October, 1960, Nigeria was rated as one of 10 most viable and potentially great nations for the future. To a discerning and impassioned mind, this was no surprise, considering the fact that NIGERIA, with a population of about 45 million people had a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of USD 4.196bn (Four Billion American Dollars) while China that was grouped together with Nigeria as one of future prospects had a GDP of USD69bn (Sixty Nine Billion American Dollars) with a population of 662, 070,000 (Six Hundred and Sixty Two Million) people.
On political fronts, though Nigeria is currently enjoying almost 20 years of uninterrupted civil rule with a neo-liberal, pseudo capitalist economy that barely allows majority of the people to eke out a living while more than over 75% (Seventy Five percent) of her Universities, Polytechnics’ graduates are without jobs and no much prospects of any, the last elections held in the country have attracted more than 5, 000 litigations, signaling one of most contentious elections ever held in the country, whereas China with a mixture of its Communist and neo-liberal economic system has taken majority of its citizens out of poverty zone and poised to do more for its people in the future.
In questing for a better future with assurances that should enable Nigeria to take her rightful place in the comity of nations, Wale joined many other Nigerians from different walks of life to agitate for a system change that could only be a product of a Sovereign National Conference (SNC) that must be truly sovereign, in deed and in truth. His conviction was hinged on the belief that the Neo-Liberal economy being imposed on Nigerians is incapable of eradicating poverty amongst the mass and allowing the country to achieve true greatness on independent terms. All these and many more symbolize what Wale Salami, the Don of Popular Struggle, represents in his lifetime by his pro-people, Socialist ideological bend. He strongly believes that until our economic system was able to completely take humanity out of poverty range, the struggle for a better life must continue.
Comrade Don was a great loss to the Centre for Anti-Corruption and Open Leadership (CACOL) because even with his intimidating revolutionary credentials, he was one of the earliest compatriots to believe in the need for the establishment of CACOL even when a host of others never gave the then Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders a chance to survive. He helped CACOL at that initial stage to manage its online contact and correspondences. Don served as volunteer worker at various capacities even before, as fate would later compel it, that he had to be a full-time staff of the organisation wherein he was serving as the Director of Research, Programmes and Documentation (DRP). He turned out to be the most diligent and committed worker, and the intellectual backbone of the Centre until death snatched him away on that black Monday, the 9th day of April, 2018. Whatever may be the plans of death, history has shown us that no revolutionary activist die with his ideas. Don’s ideas shall definitely outlive him in our hearts and actions
ADIEU, OUR INIMITABLE COLLEAGUE!
ADIEU, A TRAILBLAZER IN THE CRUSADE TO MAKE THE WORLD A BETTER PLACE TO LIVE!
The Centre for Anti-Corruption anad Open Leadership, CACOL, with sympathy and much grief mourns the death of Comrade Yinka Odumakin.
In a release issued on behalf of the Chairman, Mr. Debo Adeniran and signed by Tola Oresanwo, the organisation’s Director of Administration and Programmes, he said “we mourn the sudden death of Comrade Yinka Odumakin who until his death was the national Publicity Secretary of Afenifere, a Pan-Yoruba socio-cultural group who died on Saturday, 3rd of April, 2021 at Lagos State University teaching Hospital from respiratory issues due to complications resulting from COVID-19”.
“The news of his death came as a great shock to us as we least expect it. He was an activist, a leader, mentor to many younger folks, lover of the masses and downtrodden, a solution provider, job creator and employer of labour. Yinka, was a quintessential nationalist and freedom fighter from many fronts. A courageous politician who didn’t mind what others say but stay with the principle that guides his thoughts. He left when the thought that he may not make it had subsided. He was an activist with unique attributes since his days as student leader. We love him but nature had to take its course. We mourn his demise but we are consoled that he left when the ovation he attracted to all of us was still good. We will really miss him”.
“Irrespective of his age, the loss of a loyal colleague in the struggle normally leaves a yawning gap in one’s mind whenever one remembers him. We can only take consolation in the fact that death is the inevitable end of all mortals, without which life would have been so boring, brutish, and in a way, humiliating; hence, we are all born to die”.
The CACOL boss also said “we would recollect how Yinka Odumakin devoted his life and times for the cause of humanity. He played a key role in the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO) that fought the government of Sani Abacha after the annulment of the 1993 Nigerian presidential election. He was among the spokespersons of the Southern and Middle Belt Leader’s Forum (SMBLF). He was the spokesman of Muhammadu Buhari when he contested the 2011 Nigerian presidential election under the defunct Congress for Progressive Change. In 2014, during the government of Goodluck Jonathan, Odumakin and his wife were the only married couple among the 492-member 2014 National Conference which was held in Abuja, Nigeria. Before his death, he had also advocated the establishment of the Western Nigeria Security Network (WNSN) codenamed Operation Amotekun.
His love for people and quest for an egalitarian society seriously impacted on the legacy he bequeathed to all who encountered him during his sojourn on earth”.
“His death is an irreparable loss not only to the people of Moro his home town but to Osun State in particular and the country in general. His memory will linger on for generations to come by all privileged to know him or any of the family members”.
“We pray for the required fortitude and composure to bear his irreversible transition to eternity. Death, as we all surmise, remains an inevitable end of all; but our solace and comfort remains in the fact that he lived a worthy and remarkable life”.
The Centre for Anti-Corruption and Open Leadership, CACOL, has thrown its weight behind the Nigerian Senate in its bid to unravel the mystery surrounding the alleged missing $9.5m interest which accrued to the Federation Account from Petroleum Profit Tax Investment.
In a release issued by CACOL and signed by Tola Oresanwo, the anti-corruption organization’s Director, Administration and Programmes on behalf of its Chairman, Mr. Debo Adeniran, he stated, “We received the news that the Senate Public Accounts Committee (SPAC) has given the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, up till Thursday, to appear before it over an alleged disappearance of $9.5m interest which accrued to the Federation Account from Petroleum Profit Tax Investment. The Senate Public Accounts Committee, which is currently scrutinizing the reports of the Auditor-General of the Federation (AuGF) alleged during its sitting on Monday that the principal sums deposited, the tenor and rate of interest, were shrouded in secrecy”.
“It should be noted that The Petroleum Profit Tax is applicable to upstream operations in the oil industry. It is particularly related to rents, royalties, margins and profit sharing elements associated with oil mining, prospecting and exploration leases. The Media reported that the committee had penultimate week summoned the officials of the apex bank over alleged disappearance of the fund but no management staff of the apex bank honoured the lawmakers’ invitation”.
The summon was sequel to the consideration of the Auditor-General of the Federation report which probed the spendings of federal government’s agencies. The Auditor-General was quoted as saying in the report that, “During the examination of transfers to Foreign Excess PPT/Royalty and Foreign Excess Crude Accounts, it was observed that during the year 2016, amount totalling $6m and $3.5m were credited to the Foreign PPT/Royalty and Foreign Excess Crude Account as interest on funds’ investments. The authority for placing the funds which yielded the above interests totaling $9.5m in deposit account, the principal sums deposited, the tenor and rate of interest were not made available for audit verification. This observation had also been a subject of my reports since 2017 without any positive response from Central Bank of Nigeria. Records made available for audit further revealed that the balance in the foreign PPT/Royaltt and Foreign Excess Crude accounts as at 28th December 2016 were $0.00 and $251,826 respectively.” This, it added, suggested that the foreign PPT/Royalty was depleted before the year end.
The anti-corruption Czar opined that “It is disheartening and demoralizing how most of the MDAs flagrantly disregard the directives of the National Assembly and the country’s Auditor-General (AuGF) on submission of audited accounts for necessary vetting and scrutiny because there is a lacuna in our Constitution that has made it expedient for them to tactically evade such order with no fear of backlash or any sanction whatsoever for such impunity. This trend is not peculiar to the MDAs only, as the both the 1999 Nigerian Constitution (as amended) and other existing financial laws are either inadequate or contradictory in addressing modern challenges posed by corruption in the country. Since the advent of this democratic dispensation, cases like this abounds. The reason for this inconsistency is not far-fetched as deliberate loopholes exist in our statutes and other regulatory enactments that allows for not only impunities but also make corruption attractive and tempting since most of our approach against corruption is aimed at apprehending after the crime(s) rather than aiming at prevention as it is being done in saner and more advanced climes.
The CACOL Boss further enthused, “We want to commend the Senate Public Accounts Committee for investigating the whereabouts of this huge sum of money. Over the years, we have been at the forefront of championing calls for the legislature to take full charge of their oversight functions especially in situations where public funds were misappropriated. With the advancement in technology today, most of the looting or financial manipulations would be effectively prevented and detected ab initio if we focused more on prevention and greater accountability and independence of organs saddled with oversight and embrace e-governance as a matter of urgency. This is no doubt, in line with our previous calls for the audit law and other useful legislation that are already begging for speedy consideration and passage in the National Assembly for ages to be accorded due attention so that the fight against official corruption could become a thing of the past in the country”.
The Centre for Anti-Corruption and Open Leadership, CACOL, has commended the ruling of a High Court in Akwa-Ibom State, which sentenced a Nigerian professor, Peter Ogban, to three years in prison, for election fraud.
In a release issued by CACOL’s Director, Administration and Programmes, Tola Oresanwo on behalf of its Chairman, Mr. Debo Adeniran, he noted, “It was reported that the Akwa Ibom State High Court 2 sitting in Ikot Ekpene Local Government Area had sentenced one Professor Peter Ogban of the University of Calabar, Cross River State, to three years imprisonment for the electoral fraud he committed during the 2019 elections in the state. Ogban, a Professor of Soil Physics and Conservation, who acted as the Collation/Returning Officer during the National Assembly election, stood trial on two counts of manipulating and falsifying scores of election results in Oruk Anam and Etim Ekpo Local Government Areas in favour of the APC. In his judgment on Thursday, Justice Augustine Odokwo said it was proved beyond reasonable doubt that the accused was guilty of the charges and accordingly sentenced him to three years imprisonment and a fine of N100,000 for the two counts, respectively. All these were after a painstaking, diligent and commendable investigation, coupled with brilliant prosecution by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC)”.
“We at CACOL believed that Elections are transparent when each step is open to scrutiny and stakeholders can independently verify whether the process is conducted honestly and accurately. The principle of transparency is linked to the fundamental right of citizens to seek, receive and impart information (which are elements of the freedom of expression), as well as the right to take part in government and public affairs. To this end, we were not surprised when this case was taken to court because we have a very strong faith in the judiciary”.
“It is lamentable that the accused in this case is a learned professor who is supposed to be a very respectable person in the society who have been found worthy in learning and character but betrayed the trust reposed in him by the state. How can he mentor the young ones who look up to him for guidance? Little wonder then, why our educational system continues to produce half baked graduates when those who were supposed to teach them are engrossed in questionable and corrupt activities. Manipulation of election results had been with us since independence and it has robbed the nation of selfless leaders who were supposed to represent their constituency and have the backing of the people in their constituencies”.
The CACOL Chair added, “We insist that, it is not only criminal and condemnable to betray the public trust that has placed such civil servant in a position of authority and control after much training, to simply betray such confidence reposed in him by manipulating election results for his personal gains without considerations of the remote and immediate consequences of his action on innocent electorates and the larger society such illicit actions may ultimately rob of desired effects. We want to commend INEC for the diligent prosecution of this case and the Judiciary for the landmark judgment. We want to believe that this case will not be a flash in the pan and other cases of electoral frauds will also be judiciously prosecuted and the culprits made to face the consequence of their acts as a just supper”.
The Centre for Anti-Corruption and Open Leadership, CACOL, has thrown its weight behind the Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC) resolve to carry out part of the voter’s registration exercise online while biometric data capturing would take place at designated centres.
In a release issued by CACOL and signed by TolaOresanwo, the anti-corruption organization’s Director, Administration and Programmes on behalf of its Chairman, Mr. Debo Adeniran, he stated, “The INEC National Commissioner, Information and Voter Education, Mr. Festus Okoye, was quoted by the media as saying ‘We won’t require everyone to go to registration centres to go register. The new registrants will start their registration online and only go to the registration centres for the purpose of capturing fingerprints and faces. So, that lessens the period that people will spend at registration centres. It is only those who cannot do the online registration or don’t have the capacity to do so, that will go to the polling unit to complete the entire process but for those who are Internet savvy and have computers will start registration online and go to the registration centres for their fingerprint and face capturing.”
“We received the news concerning the modalities for the voter’s registration with great joy. We believe this is a step in the right direction especially coming at a time when social distancing is the other of the day. In developed countries of the world, technology has been used to carry out electoral processes from the beginning to the end. Voter’s registration, voter’s education and even election proper have been successfully carried out online in these countries. We want to believe this is also possible in our great country Nigeria, which prides herself as the giant of Africa”.
“We want to commend INEC for this bold move and we hope the electoral body have took their time to think about the challenges and political sensitivities involved in online registration of voters. We hope the information provided by voters online would be protected and the online database would also be protected from hackers and other online marauders. We want to encourage INEC to carry all the stakeholders and political actors along in order to establish a register that would be respected, reliable and legitimate. The preparatory phase to commence the online registration process for the first time remains the most challenging aspect. Good planning in advance and timing is important. If the first attempt is good, the credibility of the process is established, then subsequent registrations will enjoy popular support”.
The CACOL Boss further enthused, “We want to implore the federal government to make fund available for INEC to carry out this novel innovation, knowing fully well that the process would involve procurement of new machines, training and retraining of both staff and ad hoc staff members of the commission and other logistics. Paucity of funds can hinder the achievement of the responsibilities of INEC thereby jeopardizing the whole electoral process”.
The Centre for Anti-Corruption and Open Leadership, CACOL, has hailed the arrest of a former Registrar and Chief Executive Officer of the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Professor DibuOjerinde, by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) for allegedly misappropriating 900 million Naira.
In a release issued by CACOL’s Director for Administration and Programmes, TolaOresanwo, on behalf of Mr. Debo Adeniran, the Chairman of the Centre, he stated, “It would be recalled that the former Registrar of JAMB Professor Ojerinde, who was arrested on 15th March 2021, in Abuja, by operatives of ICPC, is alleged to have committed multiple frauds while heading JAMB and the National Examination Council (NECO). It was reported that Professor Ojerinde has been detained by the Commission for questioning over allegations of multiple identities, abuse of office, money laundering, tax evasion, and making false statements to public officials. The former JAMB boss is also being questioned by the Commission for allegedly awarding fraudulent contracts to shell companies that cannot be traced”.
“It is on record that just last year the current management of JAMB announced that it has returned 3.5billion Naira to the Federation Account from the excess generated from its operations during the conduct of 2020 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) following the sales of ePINs to UTME candidates, bringing the total remittance that year by the board to 7billion Naira.What the former registrar couldn’t declare as surplus to the Government for 4years was declared within one year of the new Registrar. Professor Ojerinde should tell Nigerians why JAMB was unprofitable during his time”.
“We at CACOL, congratulate the ICPC for this bold move and we urge the staff of ICPC to carry out a thorough investigation of all the allegations leveled against the former registrar of JAMB followed by meticulous and diligent prosecution of this high-brow corruption case. This is a very laudable and cheering development, considering the multiplier and damaging effects of every strand of corruption case(s) on the psyche of our people especially the youth. It is even more devastating when the corrupt acts arecommitted by revered members of the academia who are supposed to be morally upright and serve as mentors that can be looked up to but unfortunately they have soiled their reputation by betraying the trust and confidence the country reposed in them cheaply by engaging in unethical and corrupt practices”.
The Centre for Anti-Corruption and Open Leadership, CACOL, has given a pat on the back to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for mandating operators in the Nigerian financial system, particularly bankers to declare their assets as from June 1, 2021.
In a release, issued by CACOL on behalf of its Chairman, Mr. Debo Adeniran and signed by its Director, Administration and Programmes, TolaOresanwo, he stated, “We observed with keen interest the directives issued by EFCC to bankemployees in the country to declare their assets by June 1, 2021. EFCC Chairman, Mr. AbdulrasheedBawa, was quoted as saying ‘We understood that at the tail end of every financial crime is for the criminal to have access to the funds that he or she has illegitimately gotten and we’re worried about the roles of financial institutions. And we have discussed, but we hope that all financial institutions, particularly the bankers, will declare their assets as provided for by the law, in accordance with the Bank Employees Declaration of Assets Act 1986”.
“Just like most other critical sectors of Nigeria’s economy, our Banking system were so compromised and despoiled to the extent that many of the senior cadre workers in the sector were looting and engaging in ludicrous speculative and dubious transactions for personal enrichment at the risk of ordinary depositors’ money. Whereas, in saner climes, the banking industry is pivotal in transforming the domestic economy and migrate it from subsistence to tertiary and advanced productivity by studying, underwriting and financing such advanced migration, what do we find here? Our banking gurus simply collect depositors’ funds, running into billions and use it to advance their individual and group’s business interests without recourse to laid-down procedures. For so many decades, this been the practice of most within the banking industry, hence, the need to check the excesses of these bank employees.”
“We at CACOL, therefore, congratulate the EFCC for issuing this directive. We believe there is an urgent need for a means to check illicit financial flows especially when it is carried out in connivance with employees of financial houses. Declaration of assets by bank employees would among other benefits stem the tide of accumulating illicit wealth within a very short time, betraying the trust of both their customers and employers and engaging in unethical practices that do not conform to international banking best practices”.
The CACOL Boss added, “We believe that for Nigeria to be reasonably ridded of this menace or ogre of corruption especially those perpetrated with the connivance of bank’s staff, declaration of assets is a welcome development. This is why we hail the decision of the EFCC to enforce the provisions of the Bank Employees Declaration of Assets Act. We concur with the opinion of the Chairman of EFCC that the directive is part of measures to sanitize the nation’s financial system and block some of the loopholes currently being exploited by unscrupulous players in the sector to undermine the economy through money laundering and illicit financial flows.
TolaOresanwo (Mr.)
Director, Finance, Administration and Programmes, CACOL .
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