By Raphael Ede
Enugu
The National Taskforce to combat illegal importation/smuggling of arms, ammunition, light weapons and pipeline vandalism (NATFORCE), has tasked the federal government on sanitising the civil service in order to effectively fight corruption.
NATFORCE in a statement signed by its Director General, Chief Emmanuel Okereke, alleged that the civil service was the engine house of corruption in Nigeria.
The taskforce, therefore, called on President Muhammadu Buhari to probe all the Directors, Permanent Secretaries, both serving and retired, former heads of MDAs, stressing that this was the key if the country must move forward.
According to statement, “these men and women own briefcase companies as contractors, awarding contract to themselves and signs monies to themselves under different covers which does not reflect on the common Nigerians. They inflate government contracts, duplicate jobs, multiply numbers of ghost workers and eat pensioners’ money with impunity.”
The statement further noted that given the present challenges facing the country and the shocking revelations on the war against corruption, there was: “urgent need for this monster should be dealt with and all the culprits brought to book.”
Okereke expressed confidence in the sincerity and commitment of President Buhari in fishing out these ‘evil men and women’ that have stalled the growth of this nation.
“This fight against corruption must be fought headlong. No sacred cow, every stone must not be unturned for this nation to move forward. We must assist the President in fighting and blocking every loophole our economy is drained and the common Nigerians impoverished.
“The national assembly members should see themselves as partners in progress in ensuring that things are done to assist the security agencies and other related bodies to carry out their investigations and prosecution accordingly. Like the late Sunny Okosun said in his song: ‘Nigerians is now or never.’
