A Civil Society Group, Center for Anti Corruption and Open Leadership (CACOL), on Wednesday said the re-election of President Muhammadu Buhari would give more momentum to the anti-graft war.
The Executive Chairman of the group, Mr Debo Adeniran, gave the remarks in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos.
He was reacting to Wednesday’s announcement by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) that Buhari had won the Feb. 23 polls.
INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmoud Yakubu, while announcing the results of the polls in Abuja, said Buhari of the All Progressives Congress (APC) polled 15,191,847 votes to defeat his main challenger, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) who scored 11,255,978 votes.
Adeniran said Buhari’s re-election should be celebrated, especially by Nigerians who want solutions to the problem of corruption.
The group chairman, however, said the re-election of Buhari was bad news to corrupt elements who had worked against the President’s emergence so as to continue their business of looting and other economic crimes.
Adeniran said Buhari had fought corruption like never before in the last three and half years, and corrupt people should expect more trouble in his second term.
“Buhari has fought corruption so fiercely in the last three years and I have not seen any President that has done well in this area than him in the country.
“For the first time in the history of this country, we see a government prosecuting high-profile personalities for corruption.
“For the first time, we see looted monies being recovered in billions; we see monies abandoned in places by corrupt elements because they cannot account for them.
“For the first time, the CJN is being asked questions on certain things that should not be. We see people pleading guilty to corruption, begging for milder punishment.
“We never had all of these before Buhari. He is fighting corruption in the system, and we believe his re-election would add more momentum to the fight,’’ he said.
Adeniran said the vigorous implementation of initiatives such as Treasury Single Account (TSA), Biometric Verification Number (BVN) and others by the Buhari administration had helped to block loopholes.
He said that some elements had ganged up against the President because it was no more business as usual.
Adeniran said the anti-graft war was the responsibility of Nigerians, urging citizens to give the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and other agencies the right support to do their jobs.
“We commend President Buhari for the achievements he has recorded in the anti-graft war and call on all Nigerians to give their support to efforts to further fight corruption in his second term,’’ he said.
