BY BUSINESS TODAY REPORTER——-Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has urged the government of President Muhammadu Buhari to “immediately withdraw the clumsy, arbitrary and selective looters’ list, released last week, as the list would seem to serve a political objective or carry out political agenda.”
“This kind of action can only diminish the government’s ability to fight corruption, frustrate its oft-expressed goal of a transparent governance, allow suspected perpetrators—whether from the All Progressives Congress (APC) or the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP)–to escape justice, and ultimately, deny victims of corruption justice and effective remedies.”
“The Federal Government should immediately withdraw the clumsy, arbitrary and selective looters’ list, released last week. The list would seem to serve a political objective or carry out political agenda.
“This kind of action can only diminish the government’s ability to fight corruption, allow suspected perpetrators, whether from the All Progressives Congress (APC) or the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP)to escape justice, and ultimately, deny victims of corruption justice and effective remedies. The authorities should withdraw the looters’ list and come up with a comprehensive list,” the statement read in part.
“This politicised list comes at a time when the government is promoting itself as a beacon of transparency and accountability, and a model for other African countries to follow. The authorities ought to have resisted the temptation to put out this shambolic list and instead obeyed the spirit and the letter of Justice Shagari judgment,” the statement read further.
The group frowned at the manner the Federal Government pick and choose which judgments it wants to obey, even if the government would step on toes and make some politicians, whether in APC or PDP, uncomfortable.
It would be recalled that the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed had on Friday released a list of some of those who have allegedly looted the nation’s treasury, a list which contains mostly PDP chieftains.