How Nigerians can help Buhari to recover stolen funds

yinka ogunlami

December 28, 2015 4:06 AM

Falana said that corruption and looting of public funds are responsible for the untold hardship in the country. He called on all and sundry to join the anti-corruption war.

Femi Falana

Popular Lagos based lawyer, Mr Femi Falana, in a recent interview with Vanguard, disclosed that Nigerians can help the government recover stolen funds.

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“The war against corruption that is on-going deserves the encouragement of Nigerians, particularly the victims of corruption – soldiers who were deprived of arms to fight Boko Haram, the people seeking medical attention and could not get, the unemployed masses. Nigerians should own the war because if you simply leave it to government, of course, you cannot remove allegations of prosecutorial selectivity and the rest of them, but Nigerians should insist that there has to be restitution from those who have stolen from our commonwealth, and reduce our people to a poverty stricken lot. Nigerians must be prepared to wage the war much more than the government.”

Falana exhort Nigerians to expose corrupt politicians like the case of J S Tarka and Mr Godwin Dabor in the 1970s.

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“When there was no EFCC and ICPC, in the 1970s, official corruption was fought by the media. It was a case of ‘if you Tarka me I will Dabor you’. It was a story of a very powerful minister under the Yakubu Gowon regime, the late J.S. Tarka and a business man, Mr. Godwin Dabor, who went to a Lagos High Court to swear to an affidavit that the minister was corrupt and, from there, the press feasted on it and would not let go until Takar resigned from that government.”

He lamented that religious and traditional leaders have also stained their hands, so Nigerians must take up the battle themselves.

“Now, religious leaders, traditional rulers, and other forces of influence in the country are being accused of corruption and, therefore, Nigerians must own the fight against corruption or we will not get anywhere.”

Femi Falana called on the Buhari led government not to give up or be discourage in the anti-corruption battle.

yinka ogunlami