ABUJA – Political parties and presidential candidates have been called upon to explain to Nigerians what they would do to pending cases of suspected oil subsidy thieves and recovery of monies they allegedly defrauded.
The call was contained in a communique issued at the end of a two day workshop organised by Africa Network for Environment and Economic Justice (ANEEJ) with support from Justice for All (J4A) in Abuja recently.
They also called on the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Special Fraud Unit of the Nigeria Police (SFU) to investigate those who checked and released such monies to the suspects and the role of authorizing officers in various MDAs connected to oil subsidy regime in Nigeria.
The communique also urged the Judiciary to expeditiously adjudicate all pending criminal matters relating to oil subsidy fraud/corruption and bring all erring persons to justice as according to the workshop, justice delayed is justice denied.
It also called on the Federal Government to make the nation’s industries and government systems work to end corruption in the oil industry.
While calling on the National Assembly should pass the Petroleum Industry Bill before the end of the lifespan of the current National Assembly, it urged government to properly finance and resource the EFCC and Special Fraud Unit (SFU) for them to execute their mandates vide thorough investigation and prosecution of suspects.
“ The Federal Government should create Specialised courts for the oil subsidy criminal offences as well as other corruption cases as has been canvassed by Nigerians.
“The Federal Government should make the judiciary independent and let the judiciary get their resources on the first line charge as being demanded by Judiciary workers. Office of the Attorney General of the Federation and that of the Minister of Justice should be separated to promote speedy dispensation of justice.” it said
Civil Society Organisations on their part committed themselves to the establishment of a Civil Society Platform to continue work on issues of corruption and good governance in Nigeria. ANEEJ to set up modalities for the operation of the platform.
They equally agreed to continue to galvanize Nigerians through the media to further action by holding government to account on the need to bring all oil subsidy fraud/corruption suspects to justice.
The Communiqué was signed by six organisations namely: Comrade Mr. Leo Atakpu, Deputy Executive Director, Africa Network for Environment and Economic Justice, ANEEJ, Mr. Muhammed Attah, Procurement Observation and Advocacy Initiative, Ms Tracy Keshi, SAY NO Campaign-Nigeria and Mr. Idris Musa, Centre for Justice and Peace Initiative.
The rest are: Lukman Adefolahan , Zero Corruption Coalition, Vincent Dania, Africa Centre for Leadership, Strategy and Development (Centre LSD) and Ms. Motunrayo Alaka , Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism.
Rev. David Ugolor
