By; AMOS TAUNA, Kaduna
The Coalition of Arewa Youths for Zero Corruption, has appealed to the President Muhammadu Buhari-led government that agencies that have failed to comply with the ethics and integrity enquiry and those that performed very poorly in key performance indicators must be compelled, using all legal instruments available to enforce their compliance.
The group hailed the government of President Buhari and ICPC for doing a very professional and timely audit into the performance of MDAs.
According to a statement, “No stone must be left unturned in the fight to finish and eradicate corruption in Nigeria.”
The National Coordinator, Mallam Aliyu Bello Mohammed, in a statement issued on Monday that the performance of certain ministries, parastatals and agencies have shown to the whole world that a corrupt free Nigeria is possible, saying that they have been monitoring and engaging with as highly exceptional.
According to Malam Aliyu Bello Mohammed, agencies such as National Research Institute for Chemical Technology (NARICT), Ministry of Education and the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) would be indicted due to the many running battles they had with host communities and stakeholders from within and outside but to our greatest surprise, they complied fully with the ICPC integrity test with outstanding results.
“As transparency ambassadors, we call on other agencies, parastatals and ministries who either failed the integrity test or did not respond to the enquiry possibly for fear of indictment to emulate them and follow their template for fighting corruption. They should be chosen and appointed as transparency consultants so that they can share their secrets and strategies with other organisations,” the advised.
The group lamented that some top government agencies, ministries and agencies have been listed as High Corruption Risk (HCR) by the ICPC in the 2022 Integrity Report released via its Twitter page on the 12th of January 2023.
It noted that it is appalling that despite the anti-corruption stance of the present adminstration, some 52 MDAs were classified as having ‘High Corruption Risk (HCR)’ by the ICPC, stressing that their failure to respond to an Ethics and Integrity (EICS) enquiry filed by the commission in the year 2022 can best be described as complicity and a desperate attempt to hide their unethical practices.
The group, therefore, called on the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and other security agencies to immediately swing into action and sanction organisations whose ranking on the Integrity Report was very low to serve as a deterrent to others.
