By Adewale Sanyaolu
The National Association of Seadogs (Pyrates Confraternity) is seeking a probe of duplication of projects in the 2022 budget revealed recently by the Chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practises and Related Offences Commission, (ICPC), Prof Bolaji Owasanoye.
It also challenged the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari to probe several corruption allegations made by the Socio- Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) under the current dispensation.
The NAS Capoon, Mr Abiola Owoaje in a press statement titled: “Official Corruption under President Buhari’s leadership” which summarised the several corruption allegations made by SERAP in Ministries, Departments and Agencies, MDAs, noted that an evidence of the corruption was the duplication of projects uncovered by ICPC.
Owoaje who expressed disappointment that such “gargantuan fiesta of unbridled thievery is taking place under a President whose biggest electoral selling point was taming corruption” called on the President to reinvigorate the ant-graft war.
The statement read in part: “We hereby reiterate previous recommendations in earlier interventions on the federal government’s faltering anti-graft war. Once again, we urge President Buhari to urgently reinvigorate the anti-graft war by sincerely strengthening the anti-graft agencies, especially the ICPC and the EFCC, through enough budgetary provisions, and protection from political interference.
“The time is ripe in Nigeria for the establishment of Specialized Courts to quicken the dispensation of justice in the trial of corruption cases. The three arms of government should work in tandem to ensure that there is no ambiguity in the different statutes prescribing due punishment for corrupt offences. This should be done with a view to ensuring that upon conviction, commensurate judicial sanctions are meted out based on the magnitude of crimes. Judicial officers to adjudicate in corruption cases must be carefully selected and must, like Caesar’s wife, be above board.