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FG pleads for calm as it loses corruption cases

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7 years ago

April 12, 2017

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As corruption trials apparently head in favour of suspects across the nation, the federal government says the serial negative outcome of cases recorded at the high courts will not dampen the anti-graft battle.

In a statement issued in Abuja on Tuesday, Minister of Information and Culture Lai Mohammed urged Nigerians not to be discouraged by the setbacks in the war against corruption.

According to him, government had appealed against all the negative decisions, and would vigorously canvass its case at the level of the Court of Appeal.

He said all the judgments were being rigorously reviewed “to determine whether there were errors on our part or whether the government is the victim of mischief.’’

“The war against corruption is going to be long, tough and arduous, but this administration is equipped, physically, mentally and intellectually, for the long haul.

“We must win this war because the law is on our side, the people are on our side and God is on our side. This is only the beginning. So, any setback will not deter or discourage us,” he said.

Mohammed appealed to Nigerians to continue to identify with the “titanic struggle. This is not Buhari’s war, it is Nigeria’s war of liberation from poverty, misery, sickness and wretchedness’’, he said.

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He also noted that Nigeria could not afford unnecessary technicalities as far as the war against corruption was concerned because of its adverse and devastating consequences on the polity.

“Nigerians will appreciate more the grave and dire consequences of corruption when they consider that the $9.2 million found in a village house in Southern Kaduna can finance the construction of one health centre in each of the 774 local governments in Nigeria and fund them for one year.

“Against this background, one can therefore imagine what Nigeria could have achieved with the $20 billion that was estimated to have been looted in the last three years of the immediate past administration, either in the areas of job creation or infrastructure development.

“The government is therefore more determined than ever to recover as much of this plundered funds as possible and use them to put our youths back to work and fix our roads and other infrastructure,” he said.