LOOTERS’ LIST: Buhari govt not serious – CDHR

The Committee for the Defence of Human Rights (CDHR) has described the President Muhammadu Buhari-led Federal Government as unserious in the fight against corruption.

The Human rights group stated this in response to the list of the names of alleged looters, released on Saturday by Information and Culture Minister, Lai Mohammed, where names of alleged corrupt politicians who defected to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) from the Peoples Democratic Party were conspicuously omitted.

In a statement by CDHR president, Malachy Ugwummadu, the group argued that if Buhari’s administration was serious with the anti-graft fight that it would have looked inward to include in its lists of alleged looters, names of former PDP chieftains who are now in APC.

“If the Federal Government was serious about total anti-corruption war, it should also ‘look inwards’ and name ex-PDP chieftains who are now in the APC.

“The conviction and prosecution of looters were the real proof of any anti-corruption fight.

“On whether it was right for the Federal Government to have named persons whose corruption cases were already in court, it is an issue that was neither ‘here nor there’.

READ ALSO: Nigerian govt releases names of alleged looters from opposition party

“If the persons listed view it as name-dropping, they could sue for defamation; justification is the total defence to defamation. But I think what happened was that the Federal Government succumbed to pressure in releasing the list.

“What is important for the Federal Government to make Nigerians think it is serious about anti-corruption war is if it looks inwards and names those accused of corruption, who defected from the PDP to the APC,” the group statement read.

 

 

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