SIEMENS SCANDAL: GROUP DRAGS ADOKE TO EFCC, ICPC
After an examination of what it referred to as dishonourable roles of the attorney general of the Federation and minister of justice, Mohammed Bello Adoke, in the nation's anti-corruption war, the Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders (CACOL) has said Adoke is a 'saboteur', describing him as a mishap to the anti-graft struggles.
The coalition at a press conference on Tuesday, in Abuja, displayed an open letter to President Goodluck Jonathan, requesting him to relief Adoke of his position as well as, to direct the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the ICPC, to investigate an alleged $26 million USD bribery scandal settlement deals in the Siemens, Halliburton, among others against Adoke.
Executive Chairman of the coalition, Debo Adeniran, in his address disclosed that, 'within three weeks he got to office, he has withdrawn more than 15 cases that have been filed in various courts and he didn't actually give any cogent reasons for withdrawing the cases and that is antithetical to the spirit of anti-corruption struggles.
'What we want to do now is to challenge Mr. President that since he had said he would ask anti-corruption agencies to probe ministries, departments and agencies under his government, we are urging him to start that probe from the ministry of justice. Because, we have reasons to suspect the fact that he could have collected gratifications from the rogues that have perpetrated so much corruptions in this country. Otherwise, he had no reason to enter into pre-bargains with some of the companies that have been tried in their own countries and both the company and some of their directors have been found guilty especially, when you talk about Halliburton, you talk about Siemens, you talk about Wilbros, even Pentascop.
What are they doing about it?
'It is unthinkable that the number one law officer of Nigeria will go on international media to say that agencies under him are incompetent, even when he had the opportunity to correct whatever anomaly that could have been existing in those agencies and he did nothing about it. Rather than do things that would strengthen the agencies, he actually adopted some policies that would weaken them.
As a matter of fact, that will put them in a state of disrepute in the eyes of the world. Nigeria is been rated low in the anti-corruption struggle in the world and our minister of justice, who is expected to supervise the anti-corruption drive, is now the one that is making a mess, a mockery of the efforts of government and individuals and even civil society organizations. Such a minister, is not projecting the correct image of this country and that is the reason we are asking the president to relief him of his post immediately because he's rather an embarrassment to his government rather than an asset.'
Stating that Adoke's return did not reflect the collective wish and aspirations of the Nigerian people, the coalition said he was rather on a 'mission to frustrate the anti-corruption crusade of the specialized agencies set up by Acts of National Assembly to identify, investigate, expose, prefer charges and prosecute corruption culprits and economic and financial criminals in Nigeria.'
He complained that Adoke seemed to be acting the same script that his predecessor, Michael Andoakaa left behind in the justice ministry, averring that his actions had continued to show that he was only out to aid, abet, and protect perpetrators of corruption in the country instead of leading the crusade against the menace.
Adeniran also urged the EFCC Chairman, Farida Waziri, to as a matter of urgency, respond to his coalition's petitions on anti-graft against former President Olusegun Obasanjo submitted and resubmitted to the commission, as well as those on Adoke and others.