Anti- graft war, NNSG faults EFCC, others on their approach

Nigerian National Summit Group (NNSG) has decried the approach being adopted by the EFCC, officials and agencies government in their anti- corruption battle, describing such as “self-serving myopic propaganda tactics.”

It warned that unless such approach is properly addressed, it could trigger massive violent social unrest nationwide.

This is just as the group reaffirmed its support for President Muhammadu Buhari’s anti-corruption war, but insists that it must be non-selective and in accordance with the rule of law.

NNSG said this in a statement made available to newsmen in Lagos by its executive secretary, Mr Tony I. Uranta, citing the four major court cases the Federal Government recently lost as proofs that trial by media on anti- corruption war “cannot substitute for thorough investigations and properly prosecuted cases.”

“Trial by media, including the recent propaganda deployments by the EFCC, have not only been too loosely woven around unverified facts, but have even calculatedly encouraged libelous falsehoods, whilst inflaming public passion,” NNSG said.

The Summit Group, while decrying what it termed the rush by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to “mass communicate the putative discoveries of humongous amounts of allegedly looted monies,” said such approach smacked of professional impropriety, considering how many now obviously innocent individuals had had their names and integrity maligned on account of that.

“The rush, by the EFCC, for example, to mass communicate the putative discoveries of humongous amounts of allegedly looted monies, without first ascertaining their ownership, smacks of professional impropriety, especially considering how many now obviously innocent individuals have had their names and integrity at least passively impugned via nigh-libelous association with said sums, by the anti-corruption agency.

“Without attempting to hold brief for, say, Ms. Mo Abudu, Mrs. Esther Nnamdi- Ogbue, or Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, one can guess that unless the EFCC speedily offers them very serious public apologies, the stigma created by the media outcry, that wrongly linked them to the apartment in which the funds were discovered, may never be lived down by them.

“And, now that we learn that the NIA had immediately claimed ownership of the apartment and funds, one wonders in whose interest it was to ignore this and still allow for the growth of malicious public and media speculation. Even now, the uncalled-for publicity as to who the real owners of the apartments in the complex are, is distasteful and dangerous!,” the group argued.

The Summit Group, while saying that it would deploy the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act to demand the EFCC immediately tread the natural path of transparency and accountability, by urgently producing an Interim Audit Report of all monies recovered by the agency, to date, beginning from the tenure of the former EFCC Chairman, Mr. Ibrahim Lamorde, as instructed by Mr. President a couple of weeks ago, therefore, cautioned government agencies and the media to be careful, in future, before carelessly broadcasting sensational information.

It said this was imperative in order not to become the cause of a violent national social upheaval by misleading Nigerians who were already on edge and frustrated with the status quo during this recession.

It further called on members of the Nigerian public and all law enforcement agents to also be on the alert for criminal elements that might attempt to impersonate the security agencies so as to gain force, or coerce illegal entry into innocent individuals’ homes, offices, and other premises.