BEVERLY HILLS, April 24, (THEWILL) – A senior advocate of Nigeria, Mr. Femi Falana SAN has advised the Federal Government to spread the tentacles of its ongoing anti-corruption war into the activities of “money spinning” agencies of government, adding that monies looted by the chief executives of such establishments surpasses the billions currently being unearthed in some locations and apartments across the country.
He stated that the federal government needed to adopt new strategies regarding its whistle-blowing policy in such a manner that it would not be limited to exposing places where questionable funds belonging to the public are hidden alone, but also extended to exposing documents capable of leading to tracking of non-liquid cash kept in various financial institutions in Nigeria and abroad.
Addressing newsmen at his Ilawe Ekiti home, in Ekiti South West Local Government Area of Ekiti State, Falana pointed out that doing so would also further give credibility to the corruption fight of the present government as well as help expose those he referred to as incurably hardened than the conventional armed robbers.
He particularly asked President Muhammadu Buhari to beam his searchlight on a most recent report by the Nigerian Extractive Industry Initiative, NEITI, which he said gave shocking revelations about certain alleged reckless financial transactions, running into billions of dollars, carried out in some of the agencies of government that had links with oil and gas exploration
The human rights lawyer however cautioned the government against seeking capital punishment for whoever is found guilty of any criminal offence in the country, stressing that certain sections of the Nigerian constitution as well as international conventions to which Nigeria were signatory no longer support death sentences and torture, no matter the height of crime committed.
He pointed that the worst that any government could presently do to any criminal for that matter was to send him to life jail and confiscate all property suspected to be proceeds of the nature of crime so committed.
Falana reiterated his appeal to the Federal Government not to execute soldiers found guilty of one offence or the other, such as alleged cowardly act in the course of fighting insurgency in the North East.
He said there was no way the convicted soldiers could have done better if people that were given money to procure arms and ammunition had not diverted huge money meant for the procurement of arms, into private pockets
His words, “I make bold to say there is no crime that is as heinous as diverting monies meant for the procurement of arms for use by troops fighting enemies of the nation, or monies meant for construction of roads or building of hospitals
“This is because those who will die as a result of such deliberate acts of wickedness will be more than those killed by highway robbers and insurgents.”
