The Presidency on Thursday alleged that some traditional rulers
and government officials were sabotaging the Social Investment
Programme by collecting bribes from the poor beneficiaries of the
N10,000 TraderMoni scheme.
The Special Adviser to President Muhammadu Buhari on the SIP,
Maryam Uwais, stated this at the 13th Anti-Corruption Agenda for
the 9th National Assembly organised by the Human and Environmental
Development Agenda, a non-governmental organisation.
She lamented that many attempts to ensure the prosecution of the
affected persons by the various security and anti-corruption
agencies had not been successful.
Some of the affected states, according to the presidential aide
who spoke in an interview with journalists on the sidelines of the
event, included Osun, Kano, Jigawa, Katsina, Benue and Niger.
She said, “There are people in the local government areas and at
the state levels who have been able to exploit the vulnerability of
our beneficiaries.
“Some of those beneficiaries don’t even report because they are
thankful for whatever they get and they believe that the people who
are trying to take this money from them are actually capable of
removing their names from the list.
“We asked our monitors to investigate and we discovered that it
was true. We are planning to visit all those communities and assure
all those women of their protection. We have reported those cases
to the security agencies.
“Whether or not the security agencies have been swift or
aggressive in their approach is another issue. As far as compiling
and submitting our findings to security agencies, we have done our
best.
“The BoI has been able to apprehend and report the perpetrators
of such acts. We have given our statements to the anti-corruption
agency.
“The suspects have been invited but I’m yet to see any
prosecution.
“Some of the affected states are in Osun, Kano, Jigawa and
Katsina. All of them are being investigated and we have submitted
our report. I have also reported Benue and Niger with evidence
forwarded to the law enforcement agencies.”
Mr Femi Falana (SAN), who also spoke at the occasion, alleged
that none of the 774 local government areas in the country had a
functional budget as required by law.
He said, “None of the 774 local government councils in Nigeria
has any functional budget. They are just operating without any
direction.”
He also criticised the recent closure of the Nigerian- Seme
borders by the Federal Government, without considering the plights
of the poor who daily ply the road to transact cross-border
businesses.
He condemned abuse of court process, where those invited for
questioning for alleged fraud secure court orders to frustrate such
moves.
He warned that if the practice was not discontinued, criminals
and other evil elements might soon adopt the same method to
frustrate their arrests and eventual prosecution.
He said, “When you invite a politician for questioning, he runs
to a court to get an order. This is alien to our laws.”
Chairman on the occasion, Prof. Shehu Abdullahi, said every
stakeholder must contribute to the fight against corruption.
The Chief of Staff to the Deputy President of the Senate, Dr.
Otive Igbuzor, identified five bodies that should be at the
forefront of he fight against corruption.
He said, “Corruption is as old as the society itself. In every
society, there are key agencies that can fight corruption. We have
the executive, the legislature, independent commissions, the media
and citizens.
“The challenge is that these five groups must do their job well.
I want to advise that we should have a clear advocacy brief that
will be taken to the National Assembly. We need to have a clear
picture on how to tackle corruption.”
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