Labour advocates capital punishment for corrupt leaders

dimeji akinloye

September 8, 2015 9:31 PM

To drum support for the anti-corruption crusade of President Muhammadu Buhari, they said that organised labour would hold a mass rally on Thursday, September 10, in Abuja.

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Trade Union Congress (TUC) and Civil Society on Tuesday advocated for capital punishment against corrupt officials as obtained in China and India.

Making the call at a joint news conference in Abuja, NLC President Ayuba Wabba and TUC President Bobboi Kaigama said that the campaign against corruption must be intensified and sustained.

To drum support for the anti-corruption crusade of President Muhammadu Buhari, they said that organised labour would hold a mass rally on Thursday, September 10, in Abuja.

Wabba said that the NLC was in support of whatever would address the issue of corruption in the country, including death sentence.

“If such capital punishment can happen in China, India and South Africa, it can also happen in Nigeria; whatever measure that will address the issue of this mind-boggling corruption in the country, NLC will support it."

Wabba said that corruption had badly damaged the core of the country’s national existence, adding that the political leadership of the country must act decisively in order to get out of this brink of disaster.

“As organised labour, we firmly believe that the political leadership of our country must act decisively to get us out of the brink of disaster that greed and primitive accumulation through open looting of our commonwealth in the last six and more years, has brought us to.”

He said that most Nigerians had been deprived the standard quality of life due to massive corruption in the polity, adding that organised labour would no longer watch the culture of impunity.

According to him, the NLC supports the establishment of anti-corruption courts to try corruption cases in the country.

Wabba added that the Federal Government should ensure that all funds illegally taken from the treasury was traced and the perpetrators brought to book.

He called for the strengthening of anti-corruption laws and the provision of stringent punishment for looters, to serve as a deterrent to others.

Also speaking, Kaigama decried the level of looting at the state and local government levels across the country.

He said that a situation where governors could not pay workers salary for months was worrisome.

"We have not experienced non-payment of salary for eight months in the last 20years; this is sad and this is due to the massive corruption in the country.’’

He also said that the country had never witnessed a situation where state governments would have to receive bailout before they could pay monthly salary to workers.

He, therefore, called for the enactment of laws that would give new impetus to the fight against corruption, adding that all public officers must henceforth, declare their assets.

He said that the TUC was in support of special anti-corruption courts, adding that joint account for states and local government must be abolished.

dimeji akinloye