Nigeria to monitor corruption
2008-01-16 08:29
Abuja - Nigeria plans to set up a new body to monitor suspicious transactions to strengthen its fight against corruption in the public sector, President Umaru Yar'Adua said on Tuesday.
Yar'Adua took office on May 29 pledging zero tolerance for corruption in one of the world's most tainted countries, but critics had accused him of slowing the battle against fraud.
The new body, modelled on similar systems in the United States and China, would monitor money flows by sharing information among prosecutors, police and banks, Yar'Adua said.
"You must tackle the system and leave no room for people to be tempted," a statement from the presidency quoted Yar'Adua as saying at a meeting with the World Bank vice-president for Africa, Oby Ezekwesili, in the capital, Abuja.
He added: "That way, anybody who engages in corrupt activities knows he is putting himself on the line."
Anti-corruption campaigners
Seven state governors from the last administration had been charged with embezzlement and money laundering since Yar'Adua took office in a country, where people with such connections had traditionally been shielded from the law.
But anti-corruption campaigners saw the president facing an uphill task, particularly because two of the ex-governors helped finance his election victory in April, which international monitors said was not credible because of widespread fraud.
The removal last month of the head of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), who led the politically charged campaign against corruption under the last administration, prompted many Nigerians to question Yar'Adua's commitment to fighting graft.
Yar'Adua acknowledged the negative perception and said all anti-corruption agencies had been given a free hand to operate within the confines of the law.
Fight against corruption
His predecessor, former President Olusegun Obasanjo, was accused of using corruption accusations as a weapon to sideline political enemies and encouraging the anti-corruption police to disregard civil liberties.
"I have told them I won't interfere, because I am strongly in support of the fight against corruption. No hurdle has been put on their path. The only thing I have made very clear is that they must follow the rule of law and due process", Yar'Adua said.
Campaigners said there had been no significant progress in the cases against the former governors, five of whom were charged in June and granted bail. Two others, James Ibori of the oil-producing state of Delta and Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti, were charged in December and remanded in prison.
The case against Ibori, who was accused of stealing more than $85 million and trying to bribe police with $15m to stop investigating him, was seen as a big test of the new government's commitment.