Despite recent armada of revelations of corruption in several institutions, Federal Government on Tuesday said it was more determined than ever to battle the cancerous tumour.
Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed who stated this at a press briefing in Abuja stated that “anyone who disagrees that the anti-corruption fight is alive and well is free to dare us.
“What the revelations of the past few weeks, especially the investigation of the nation’s anti-corruption Czar, have shown is that this Administration is not ready to sweep any allegation of corruption under the carpet; that there is no sacred cow in this fight and that unlike the PDP – we will not cover up for anyone, including the members of our party and government, who faces corruption allegations.
Our fight against corruption is blind to party affiliation, position in government and any other consideration.
“If the nation’s anti-corruption Czar can be investigated, then the fight against corruption cannot be deemed to be fake, neither can it be said to be waning.”
According to him, Nigerians have recently been inundated with allegations of monumental corruption in a number of government agencies, including the NDDC, NSITF and the anti-corruption agency, EFCC.
“Many, especially naysayers, have misinterpreted these developments as a sign that the Administration’s fight against corruption is waning.
“In fact, the main opposition PDP has latched on to the developments to call for the resignation of Mr President, a call that is nothing but infantile!
Let me state here and now that the fight against corruption, a cardinal programme of this Administration, is alive and well.”
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Insisting that allegations of corruption at NDDC, NSITF, EFCC or any other agency were not new, Mohammed declared “what is new is the speed and seriousness with which this Administration has tackled, and is still tackling, the allegations.
“Is it not a sad irony, then, that those under whose watch the alleged freewheeling spending by the Commission started are now the ones accusing those who are cleaning up after them of corruption?
As proof of such seriousness, the Minister said the administration has recorded over 1,400 convictions, including high profile ones, and recovered funds in excess of N800 billion,
not to talk of forfeiture of ill-gotten properties.”
He mentioned Treasury Single Account (TSA), the Whistleblower Policy, the expansion of the coverage of the Integrated Payroll Personnel and Information System as well as the Government Integrated Management Information System and the Open Government Partnership and Transparency Portal on Financial Transactions, among others as ways by which government was fighting corruption.
Mohammed also added the ICPC’s Constituency and Executive Projects Tracking Group and the review of the personnel and capital fund expenditure of MDAs as additional efforts.
“Therefore, those who are celebrating the so-called waning of the Administration’s anti-corruption fight are engaging in wishful
thinking, and are not looking at the full ramifications of the fight.”
He disclosed that the administration had empowered teams of prosecutors, assembled detailed databases of evidence, traced the proceeds of crimes and accelerated the recovery of stolen funds.
“The policies that we are putting in place today are to ensure such criminal and unpatriotic acts do not go without consequences.”