A group of lawyers under the aegis Coalition of Lawyers Against Corruption in Nigeria (COLAC) through its Executive Director, Olusegun Bamgbose has pledges support to the president Buhari led government in fight against corruption.
Bamgbose who led other zonal directors of COLAC, during a press briefing in Abuja, said that the association is set to give this administration a strategic and logistic support to make a fight against corruption a big success adding that the previous government never wanted to rid the nation of the endemic.
“Corruption must be seriously tackled and President Buhari alone cannot successfully fight the battle, he needs a strategic back-up and we are prepared to offer him. After critical appraisal of the fight so far, we have seen the need to lend a helping hand to minimize corruption in Nigeria. The previous government was a complete failure and corruption becomes so rampant that except for the change of government, our nation would have been doomed.” He said.
Speaking further, he retorted that the group will be committed and frank to champion the course without sentiment or any sacred cows indicating how onerous, tasking and risky the fight is, but assures Nigerians no sacrifice will be too much to rid the nation of corruption.
“We want to warn political looters and potential looters to expect hard times ahead. We shall fear and spare no one. Anyone who has stolen our money should be prepared to refund or go to jail. We will make it difficult for government officials to steal. There shall be no sacred cow.” He warned.
While fielding questions on the sincerity of the government in fighting corruption as some claimed is witch hunting or going after perceived political enemies, the Executive Director said he didn’t believe that sentiments from some quarters stating that if an indicted person makes a restitution he shall be set free citing Orji Uzoh Kalu.
“To fight corruption, you have to start somewhere and I will not subscribe to the notion that the fight against corruptions is selective and in this case if you do the restitution you are let go as in the case of Oji Uzo Kalu returning of the N9.million given to him but if you insist that you must retain the loot you will go to jail. Obviously Dazuki must have refused to return the money and Olise Metuh was also asked if he is going to return the money and he said no.”
On how he would score the present administration to the adherence to the rule of law considering the fact that Dazuki was granted bail that was denied he said; that $2.1million dollars is a very large amount of money and Dazuki will jump bail if left off the hook even the sureties will also runaway
