SERAP backing EFCC probe of Obasanjo power project
Socio-Economic Rights and accountability Project (SERAP) said its backing EFCC probe of the Olusegun Obasanjo administration $16billion power project.
SERAP said its organisation has consistently called for the probe, as it will an opportunity for the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to show that high ranking public officials are not immune.
In a statement issued by SERAP deputy director, Kolawole Oluwadare, it states;
The EFCC has the full support of Nigerians in its efforts to hold high-ranking public officials to account for grand corruption, and if consistently, fairly and diligently pursued, this probe would contribute to ending impunity for corruption, and to mobilizing and encouraging youth civic engagement in the anti-graft fight in the country.
SERAP stands ready to work with the EFCC in pursuing all allegations of grand corruption.
Former presidents have routinely faced corruption charges in countries like Iceland, Kyrgyzstan, Brazil, Montenegro, South Korea, Pakistan, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Slovakia, Peru, and Mauritius, and the probe by the EFCC would mean this list would grow even further to include Nigeria.
Impunity for grand corruption will continue as long as high-ranking public officials go largely unpunished for their alleged crimes.
It is by pursuing these allegations and taking the evidence before the court that the truth will be revealed and justice best served.
Addressing impunity in the power sector should be total.
This would help to further public perception of fairness and thoroughness.
Lack of regular electricity supply in the country had occasioned many other problems, including lack of access to potable water.
The failure by successive governments to tell Nigerians the truth about allegations of corruption in the power sector amounts to a failure to ensure that electricity services are progressively made available, on the basis of equality and non-discrimination.
