Rivers TUC calls for dedicated account for recovered loots

A dedicated bank account should be opened to hold funds recovered from looters, the Rivers State chapter of the Trade Union Congress (TUC) has demanded. The elite labour union also called for a law on unexplained wealth in Nigeria to ensure that offenders were properly dealt with.

Addressing a press conference in Port Harcourt on Thursday, September, 10, 2015, to mark the nationwide solidarity against corruption, the TUC led by Chika Onuegbu insisted that the recovered funds must be used to promote job creation,funding of educational infrastructure from primary to tertiary institutions, and for upgrading of the nation’s healthcare infrastructure.

TUC also called for the setting up of special anti-corruption courts to try corruption cases in the country.

“Realising that those who have looted our treasury have become adept at using the loopholes in the procedure of regular courts to delay and in several cases subvert the cause of justice, it is our firm belief that the enactment of special anti graft courts akin to the electoral tribunals, complete with timeframe within which cases once started are to be concluded, will give a renewed impetus to the fight against corruption.”

TUC also demanded for public declaration of assets by all elected and appointed officers upon assumption of office, to boost the war against corruption.  “President Muhammudu Buhari must know that there is an urgent need to review and strengthen our anti-corruption legislations. In this regard we challenge the Itse Sagay Presidential Advisory Committee on Corruption to comb all our anti-graft legislations and make the appropriate recommendations for effective fight against corruption. Integral to the above is the necessity to identify the required personnel and infrastructure which will be needed in this renewed fight against corruption, and provisions made for them. In this direction, we call for the appointment of anti-graft judges provided for in the ICPC Act, which is supposed to be for each of the 36 States of the Federation to exclusively handle corruption related cases only”.
TUC also supported the earlier for 10 percent reward to whistle-blowers but said this should be reduced to five per cent. Labour suggested that this mechanism should also extend to revenue collection to encourage people to squeal on those who hide their wealth to pay less tax.

The union said, “The anti-graft agencies should as a matter of urgency extend their search light to the two other tiers of government in the States and Local Governments, as it is a commonly known fact that the level of impunity and lack of accountability at this level is even more brazen than at the Federal level. Finally, joint account between state and local government should be abolished as this is a very big bastion of corruption at the state level. These are our positions which we want Federal Government to embrace in pursuit of the anti corruption crusade.”

Onuegbu said the primacy of the focus on the fight against corruption and elimination of waste in governance was because corruption has become a culture in Nigeria and it was widely believed that some 40 per cent of the budget was frittered away through it and inefficiency.

“More so, it was the main selling point of President Buhari campaigns since Nigerians perceive him as an honest man. The truth is that the continued haemorrhaging of our national resources as a result of blow-outs through corruption has undermined the capacity of Governments at all levels to deliver on the various promises of democracy to the citizenry. The genuine fight against corruption can no longer be put on hold especially now that oil prices have fallen by some 50 per cent leading to severe reduction in government revenues.”
Ignatius Chukwu