Ribadu seeks removal of Attorney-General

Posted by admin Latest Politics, National Politics Wednesday, February 23rd, 2011

Should the Nuhu Ribadu Campaign Organisation have its way, the Attorney-General and Justice Minister, Mohammed Bello Adoke, will be kicked out of his job immediately. Reason: his obvious lack of commitment to the fight against corruption – according to the organisation.

Its Director (Media and Communications), Ibrahim Modibbo, in a statement, said: “President Goodluck Jonathan cannot be going around in his campaign, promising to fight corruption when his principal justice officer continually acts at variance to the will of good governance. We, therefore, call on President Jonathan to remove Adoke now.”

The call is coming on the heels of a petition by 10 civil society groups, mounting pressure on the Presidency to back its promise of fighting corruption with action. The Executive Director of the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre, Awwal Musa Rafsanjani, on Monday in Abuja said: “Adoke has flagrantly violated sections 15(5) and 174 (3) of the 1999 Constitution when he set out to withdraw several cases on economic crimes against the public interest.”

Prominent among these cases are the Halliburton bribe scandal, the National Electricity Regulatory Commissioners scandal, the trial of Kenny Martins, handled by Festus Keyamo, on Police Equipment Fund cash, the Siemens scandal and many others. In each instance, corruption charges were dropped and accused the persons absolved of various allegations.

Some of these international cases, Modibbo stated, were initiated by the EFCC and the international community took action, prosecuted and convicted their own citizens who were involved. “But the AGF thought otherwise,” he said, adding: “His action cannot be excused; our people live in extreme poverty.”

Modibo said: “A World Bank report indicates that over 80% of oil revenue benefits only one per cent of the population; it attributes this to corruption. If, therefore, the Jonathan government is truly sincere about providing good governance, it must fight corruption to a standstill so that our people will eventually smile as their resources would be judiciously used in providing dividends of democracy.”

Modibo said: Our investigations revealed that the Minister’s office has consistently absolved highly-placed people in the society of corruption charges and the campaign organisation believes that this will further encourage corruption in the society. If no immediate action is taken to address this issue of damaging consequence, we will be left with no alternative than to conclude that Jonathan’s campaigns against corruption are empty rhetorics that begin and end on the pages of the newspapers.

“Balance, equity and justice in a society can only be achieved when good is rewarded and evil is punished. The path that the Federal Government is towing is sending the wrong signal to the people and is encouraging gross theft of our commonwealth, as people now think that anyone can get away with flagrant corruption inasmuch as he holds the Umbrella.”wp_posts