Human rights lawyer, Femi Falana, (SAN), has accused the Federal Government of abandoning the fight against corruption.
Falana spoke yesterday, at the 26th anti-corruption Situation Room on the theme: ‘State of Anti-Corruption in Nigeria: Assessment of 2021 and setting agenda for 2022′, organised by the HEDA Resource Centre, in Abuja
The lawyer also said corruption will continue to thrive in Nigeria until some Bills are passed into law. Some of the Bills, according to him, are the proceed of the Crime Bill, the Witness Protection Bill and the Whistleblower Bill.
He also said the refusal by President Muhammadu Buhari to assent to the federal audit bill was fueling corruption. He added that the war against corruption will only be won if the bills are passed into law.
To win the anti-graft war, he said there was a need to change the narrative by focusing on other sectors that may be breeding corruption rather than just concentrating on public office holders and offices alone.
Falana said there was a need to also focus on human traffickers, drug traffickers, ritual killers, Internet fraudsters who are draining the resources of the country.
He also said the government must set up a body of committed lawyers and practitioners to trace and recover stolen funds which are about $500billion.
Falana further said: “The government will have to decide before next year whether it wants to leave a legacy of anti-corruption but right now, the anti-corruption crusade has been abandoned by the government”.
On the recovery of funds, he said: “It has been disclosed that the money that has been stolen from this country is not less than $500billion; I have not seen any concrete effort to recover the huge fund.
“What I am suggesting is that the government will need a team of international lawyers, bankers and accountants who can pursue the recovery.
“It requires some expertise and that is not being shown so far and that is why we have not been able to recover substantial funds”, he stated.
