Activists ask EFCC to release House car probe report
Civil society group, the Conference of Nigerian Civil
Rights Activists (CNCRA) on Wednesday charged President Goodluck
Jonathan to compel the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC)
to make public its investigation into an alleged N2.3 billion car
contract scam in the House of Representatives.
The group, in a statement issued by its national
coordinator, Ifeanyi Odili, and his general secretary, Sina Akadiri,
said it was wrong for the anti graft agency not to make public its
report on the alleged scam.
Mr. Odili said the failure of the agency to pursue
the case to a logical conclusion showed that it was selective in its
anti-corruption crusade.
The leadership of the House were, in September 2008,
accused of inflating the cost of the purchase of Peugeot cars
distributed to committee heads. The House leadership, however denied
any wrongdoing in the matter.
Selective probe
Mr. Odili accused the anti graft agency of refusing to prosecute House members named in the alleged scam.
“Regrettably, the government has been selective with
the anti-corruption war by allowing corrupt high profile government
functionaries to go unpunished whenever they are indicted by the
anti-graft agencies,” he said. “By virtue of the EFCC act, any public
office holder indicted of corrupt practices shall be prosecuted without
recourse to any other authority of the federation.
To our chagrin and consternation, information at our
disposal indicates that EFCC had, for long, concluded its investigation
into the alleged scam and submitted its report to the late President,
Umar Yar’adua.”
Emulate Ogbulafor
“The action of EFCC of submitting report to the
presidency without prosecuting the offenders is a brazen act of utter
disregard to the rule of law and due process being championed by your
administration,” said the civil rights leader.
“The Presidency owes it a duty to, as a matter of
public importance, order the prosecutions of all the indicted public
officers, especially in the case of 2.3 billion naira car contract scam
in the House of Representatives of the National Assembly.”
The CNCRA also advised those involved in the scam to emulate the
national chairman of the People Democratic Party (PDP), Vincent
Ogbulafor who resigned based on allegations of corruption against him.
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