Kwara to receive N200m looted funds as gov. leads anti-graft walk

Layi Olanrewaju, Ilorin And Olanrewaju Lawal, Birnin Kebbi

Kwara State governor, AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq led a marathon on the anti-corruption walk across downtown Ilorin yesterday, amid renewed calls on Nigerians, especially young people to shun graft or activities capable of stunting development.

Tagged, “Nigerian Youths Walk Against Corruption”, AbdulRazaq was joined in the over two-hour walk by the Speaker of the House of Assembly Yakubu Danladi; Zonal Head of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Isyaku Sharu; State Coordinator of the National Youths Service Corps, Esther Ikupolati; members of the House of Assembly; hundreds of members of the NYSC; artisans; and civil society organisations.

The walk was one of the EFCC’s public awareness programmes to draw attention to the danger of corruption. AbdulRazaq who arrived at the EFCC office at 7a.m, joined the walk from the beginning to the end, and repeated President Muhammadu Buhari’s refrain that, “corruption would kill the country if the country fails to kill the cancer”.

According to him, “we have been walking the talk, now we are walking in support of the war (against corruption). The message is very clear: Kill corruption or it will kill us all.

He further said: “We have to do the right thing and be cautious. We have seen what has happened to those that have been in (this) position before us. Nobody wants to leave the office and be going to EFCC’s office daily. So, we will do the right thing in Kwara State. We appreciate the EFCC; they had earlier given us over N100 million. They have invited us (again) to collect another N200m (recovered looted funds); they have made a lot of progress.”

The anti-corruption walk organised by the EFCC, in partnership with the NYSC, terminated at the EFCC office. Speaking in a similar vein, the Economic Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Sokoto Zonal Office and National Youths Service Corps (NYSC), have charged the youths in Kebbi State to tackle corruption at the grassroots.

The Sokoto Zonal Head, Mr Abdullahi Lawal, stated this yesterday in Birnin Kebbi during a public awareness walk, themed, “Nigerian Youths Walk Against Corruption”, organised by the agency in collaboration with NYSC and Kebbi State government.

He told the corps members, students and other youths in the state to fight corruption at their various domains to the barest minimum.