As part of activities marking this year’s world anti-corruption day, the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) in partnership with Social Action and other sisters civil society organizations in Rivers State on Monday, the 10th of December held a rally/road walk around the city to bring peoples attention to the ravaging effect of corruption on the society.
Addressing journalists after the rally, the South-South zonal head of the EFCC, Mr Nnaghe Itam, said that as long as there are humans existing, who are also the perpetrators of corruption, there will be corruption.
He said the fight against corruption is a continuous one, but with efforts of EFCC, CSOs and the entire populace, corruption will be reduced to the barest minimum in both Nigeria and in South-South.
Mr Itam also urged the people to be wise and prudent while voting in their leaders in the forthcoming 2019 general election. He stated that” as long as we allow corruption to continue with corrupt politicians who promise things they can’t do and dwell on things that don’t promote good governance, until we accept that we won’t put leaders in place who will come and steal, who will not come and develop the society, until we continue to fight against corruption, we will not see the economic and social development that we desire”.
He added, ” so it is important that even as the electorates, we don’t expect vote buying, because by simply selling our votes, it proves how corrupt we are in nature. We have to resist vote selling and start looking at politics of development, the credibility of aspirants and good ideas of programs before voting.
He said, “as long as electorates sell their PVCs to politicians, it will form a basis for the future, because these politicians will continue to see it as an investment where they will steal money meant for societal development, in order to recuperate all the money they spent in buying peoples’ votes to get into public office.
He encouraged Rivers State people and the entire Nigerians to take the value of ideas of development, of programs that will get them out of the situation they are in and vote for people who will do that, because we have Nigerians who will do that.
On his part, Mr Peter Mazi, the program officer, department of public, finance and accountability, Social Action, stated that ” corruption cannot kill us but rather, with the joint effort of the entire populace, EFCC and CSOs in the region, corruption can be curtailed”
He also added that the fight against corruption is unbiasedly aimed to instil accountability and credibility in the citizens of Rivers State and Nigerians at large.
Also, Mr Green Isaac, program officer, Social Action, said as much as Social Action is geared towards instilling social justice, community justice and organizational development in Niger Delta, the people who are corrupt, who are abusing the right of others by taking what belongs to them will be exposed.
