Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed, has declared that the fight against corruption in Nigeria looks one-sided because the indicted persons on trial are connected to arms scandal currently being investigated.
Lai Mohammed said some members of his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) were also being investigated for other corruption cases which he did not mention.
“If you go to the EFCC today and ask them who are the people that are facing charges before them, you are going to find as many APC and as many PDP [Peoples Democratic Party]. “However, what gives the impression that the fight is one-sided is the fact that it is simply one issue that is being investigated now. That is, money meant to buy arms which was diverted for other uses and unfortunately, everybody involved in that happen to be in the PDP. From the NSA to others whom he had named.
On why it takes time to prosecute cases involving indicted persons, he said that from experience, “it takes between 34 days and seven years to convict a low-profile criminal but when that criminal is high-profile, it takes as long as 10 years to infinity to convict that person”. “We have appealed to lawyers and judges to help us in this fight against corruption. We should not allow those who have been accused of corruption to explore legal loopholes to continuously frustrate prosecution. On the continued detention and trial of some indicted persons, the Minister urged those accused to be in a hurry to prove their innocence.
“They should stop employing delay tactics to frustrate the prosecution. None of them are in a hurry to prove their innocence. On the contrary, they are experts in delaying and frustrating prosecution.
“We will not be deterred and we want Nigerians to join in this fight against corruption,” he declared.
