A Niger Delta activist, Sheriff Mulade, has urged Nigerians to support President Muhammadu Buhari’s crusade against corruption, saying that the speedy trial of corrupt Nigerians would boost the fight against the social menace.
Mulade said this while speaking with our correspondent against the backdrop of the recent recovery of various sums of money by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission from one of the houses belonging to a former Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, Dr. Andrew Yakubu in Kaduna and the discovery of the sum of N11.75bn allegedly belonging to former minister of petroleum resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke.
The activist, who is the national coordinator of Centre for Peace and Environmental Justice, said it was heartless for some Nigerians to stash such huge amount of money, in both local and foreign currencies, in their homes while the majority of the citizens wallowed in abject poverty.
He said, “I must express my shock over the whopping sum recovered from the former GMD of the NNPC and that recovered so far from the former Petroleum Minister. The people are suffering and yet those appointed into various positions and our elected officials are busy looting the nation dry.
Look at the poor state of the Niger Delta Region, whereas corrupt Nigerians are enriching themselves with the oil money”. Mulade, therefore, solicited the support of Nigerians in stemming the scourge of corruption in various facets of the economy.
He urged the National Assembly to support the fight against graft, expressing regret that corruption had started to fight back. The activist argued that well-meaning Nigerians should join the President in his determination to stamp out corruption from the country.
“Let us collectively fight the current recession and corruption. If we can win the fight against corruption, recession will disappear. So much has been looted and that is why we are passing through hardship at the moment.
We must end corruption in Nigeria, otherwise, corruption will end all of us”, he said. He commended the Acting Chairman of the EFCC, Mr. Ibrahim Magu, for his “good work” and implored him not to relent.
The CEPEJ boss also commended the police in Lagos over the recent rescue of the kidnapped Turkish school children.
“We want to charge the various state police commands to rise to the challenge of kidnapping, hijacking, hostage taking and others. These criminal activities have affected and destroyed Nigeria’s image and also succeeded in scaring away a lot of investors,” Mulade said
