The Executive Chairman of the Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders (CACOL),Comrade Debo Adeniran has admonished the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria Dr Goodluck Jonathan not to succumb to pressures from his party members to appoint proven incompetent people as ministers, not the least are past ministers whose performance history are below expectation of Nigerians.President Jonathan
One of such ministers, according to Adeniran, is the immediate past Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation, Mr Mohammed Bello Adoke.
Considering the former minister's antecedent while in office as the AGF, the CACOL Chairman allegedly averred that Mr Adoke contributed to the festering national sore that corruption is instead of curtailing it.
Adeniran explained that Adoke always exhibited arrogance of impunity when ever he wanted to withdraw cases that anti graft agencies like Economic and Financial Crime Commission EFCC and Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC) have painstakingly investigated and charged to the court of law.
Said he, "we can boldly say that Adoke was the bane of the effectiveness and smooth operation of anti graft agencies and could aptly be described as an Ambassador of Corruption in Nigeria".
Going down the memory lane, he added that during Adoke's tenure, the former AGF was fond of asking the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) and Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC) as well as the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) to drop corruption charges against his favourite Publicly Exposed Persons (PEPs) for his own ministry to preside over it.
"And each time such cases are taken over by him, they were withdrawn from courts by entering charges against them without recourse to the agency that might have expended time, energy and public resources in investigating such cases. Recent information has it that about 30 cases have been, in the verge of being withdrawn or admitted to the corruptible transaction called "Plea-Bargain" in such circumstances.
A few prominent of such cases include the ones involving the Vaswani Brothers who were accused of multi-billion naira tax evasion and forgery, Kenny Martins of PEF notoriety, former Controller-General of Customs, Julius Berger Plc., Siemens, etc.
The withdrawal of charges against indicted multinational companies which included Julius Berger, Siemens Plc, Saipem, Technip and Haliburton Inc. Quoting from a newspaper, the anti-corruptin activist submitted at a press briefing that the AGF had told Journalists that the Federal Government has recovered $170.6m penal fines from multinational companies indicted in the Halliburton scandal in their bid to escape.
A total of about $255m would have been received as restitution from the indicted companies, which is considerably less than those imposed by foreign countries involved in the case.
A vivid example is the US government, which fined Halliburton $559m. It has been discovered that , here in Nigeria , the company paid a paltry fine and individuals haven?t made restitution.
His latest bid before leaving office was the case of Alhaji Suleiman Bello, the former minister of State for Health, who was alleged of collecting N4.2 million from the Adamawa State Governor in the year 2007.
After the ICPC has tried in its own bit in the effort to bring the culprit to book by making sure that he is being prosecuted, The then Attorney General in person of Mr Mohammed Adoke tried to misuse his power to cover up a sin that has already being made known to the general public.
But for decisive intervention of a Federal High Court in Lagos on Thursday, 28 October, 2010 which refused the bid of the Attorney-General of the Federation, Mr. Mohammed Adoke (SAN), to withdraw the charge against Anosike brothers over the alleged dissipation of the Daily Times of Nigeria Plc's assets as Justice Pat Ajoku dismissed the AGF's application on the matter.
He, therefore, described Mohammed Adoke as a man who has used all his might and power to defend people who have raped and robbed the country of his resources and therefore should not be considered as one of the nominees in the ministers list.
The CACOL Chief further said that new Jonathan Goodluck cabinet should treat the fight against corruption in Nigeria as a topmost priority and therefore advised that all hands must be on deck to fight the menace to a standstill. Adeniran reminded President Jonathan that the Nigerian masses voted for him and not PDP and urged him to ensure he delivered on all his campaign promises so that the country will move to a greater height in area of human and infrastructural development.
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