In\u00a0 2011\u00a0 Jude Agbaso , a young man\u00a0 was made deputy governor of Imo state via the political connection of\u00a0 his\u00a0 elder brother Martin Agbaso . Jude had no idea about governance. He knew nothing about\u00a0 politics . He had never held or managed a public office. Those who foisted him on\u00a0 Ndi-Imo painted him as a credible face. We were told that he was\u00a0 Mr. Integrity, that he carried\u00a0 the banner of Mr Incorruptible. We\u00a0 believed them and listened when he spoke. When he was given an extra role of commissioner of works of the state, we clapped.<\/p>\n
In February 2013, Imolites woke up one morning to hear that\u00a0 the same Jude has\u00a0 received\u00a0 bribe monies\u00a0 totaling N458 million from\u00a0 a construction company. We\u00a0 were\u00a0 \u201cshock- struck\u201d. There are things that happen, and you will be dumb-founded, you\u00a0 will be\u00a0 filled with so much shame that your eyes\u00a0 will close in indignity. That was how many of us who believed the Mr. Integrity story of Jude Agbaso felt.<\/p>\n
We gathered that due to contractors abandoning road projects in Imo State, the Imo Joint Committee on State and Local Government Projects went into investigation to find out why .In the investigation, it was\u00a0\u00a0 discovered that Jude Agbaso\u00a0 was\u00a0 involved in a N458 million bribery scam. Acting on the report of the Project Monitoring Committee, the Imo House of Assembly set up a Special Adhoc Committee for further investigation. Mr. Joseph Dina ,MD of J-PROS International Nigeria Limited\u00a0 confessed that he gave\u00a0 Agbaso a total sum of N458 million on request as kickbacks for the reconstruction of the Sam Mbakwe road\u00a0 in Owerri which was awarded for N1.5 billion. Dina revealed the phone number with which the deputy governor made the request and the account numbers.<\/p>\n
Ndi-Imo\u00a0 all over expressed their displeasure with Agbaso. His action was seen as an anti-poor and self-serving conduct. He was immediately noted as a\u00a0 fat cat that\u00a0 sees\u00a0 public office\u00a0 as his\u00a0 gold mine, to plunder and leave the rest of us in pitch darkness. Calls for him to face the full fire of the law started coming from the people of the state. Twenty three members of the 27-member Imo State House of Assembly impeached him\u00a0 on March 28, 2013. Corrupt enrichment is neither legitimate nor part of the tasks that voters hire a governor or\u00a0 deputy governor to discharge.<\/p>\n
A\u00a0 governor or deputy governor\u00a0 who is discovered to\u00a0 loot the\u00a0 public treasury always\u00a0 face\u00a0 the ire of taxpayers . Everybody condemns corruption. Corruption is like a tax. It differs only in the sense that the payment does not end up as public revenue.It deprives government of revenue required to provide productive public goods. It is more detrimental to growth than excessive taxation. There can be no justification for collecting\u00a0 such an outrageous amount of money as kickbacks for reconstruction of a road\u00a0 in a state where 60% of her citizens live on less than 600 naira\u00a0 per day, in a state\u00a0\u00a0 that has almost 10,000 children on the streets-children without parental care, without shelter.<\/p>\n
Last week I read several newspaper headlines and commentaries that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has declared the \u00a0Emekuku born \u201cthieftain\u201d Jude Agbaso not guilty over the bribe scam. Honestly, there are reasons why I have stop to believe anything that comes out of the EFCC. I stop to believe the EFCC because I notice that the agency encourages corruption by\u00a0 working as a \u201cprotector-general\u201d for men who are Nigeria\u2019s biggest and most mindless crooks . I notice that the agency conspires with Nigerian fraudsters while pretending to be\u00a0 probing them. They\u00a0 use\u00a0 rhetoric\u2019s to\u00a0 spare corrupt public officials\u00a0 from serious prosecution, public officials who by their treasury looting\u00a0 have done infinitely\u00a0 harm to Nigeria just\u00a0 like Boko Haram.<\/p>\n
There have been countless number of arrests and investigations involving millions and billions of naira but unfortunately at the end \u00a0of such investigations EFCC \u00a0will always come out that there are no evidence \u00a0to find the accused guilty of fraud whereas there were evidences before the invitation of EFCC and at the beginning of the trial.I regard the Agbaso\u2019s wholesale clearance by EFCC as\u00a0 a joke to make people laugh. They are\u00a0 just trying to practice the trade of Julius Agwu on stage.In a country without real means of entertainment due to power blackouts, this\u00a0 EFCC\u00a0 clearance of Agbaso is\u00a0 indeed another\u00a0 Julius Agwu\u2019s crack ya ribs.<\/p>\n
Do they\u00a0 think that Imo people are\u00a0 brain dead ? So they \u00a0expect Ndi-Imo \u00a0to swallow this \u00a0concoction that Agbaso\u00a0 is free of the bribe scam. So they \u00a0expect us to believe that our respected \u00a0Chief Judge\u00a0 Ben Njemanze\u2019s probe\u00a0 panel and the \u00a023 out of 27 members of\u00a0\u00a0 Imo House of Assembly erred in declaring Agbaso guilty.<\/p>\n
Why should we \u00a0believe EFCC\u2019s\u00a0 false assertion\u00a0 that it\u00a0 couldn\u2019t find any \u00a0indictment on Agbaso when\u00a0 we \u00a0know how the\u00a0 Bankole-EFCC\u00a0 story\u00a0 ended.There is insincerity in EFCC\u2019s fight against corruption in Nigeria. This is an agency that could not \u00a0tell us \u00a0till date what happened to more than $12 billion in additional revenues that Nigeria earned from oil sales during the first Gulf War. Babangida who stole or took or kept them is still alive.<\/p>\n
This is an agency that could not \u00a0address till date the scandal of June 12, 1993, when a stellar election was annulled for reasons that nobody has articulated. This is an agency that could not \u00a0\u00a0address till date the scandals of the Sani Abacha years, including billions of dollars taken away from the Central Bank, the debt buy back scam, and deals in which the dictator, his family and friends imported toxic fuel into Nigeria.<\/p>\n
This is an agency that could not\u00a0 prosecute till date \u00a0\u00a0the Obasanjo-era scandals and scams, including Obasanjo\u2019s Transcorp shares, the contract for the Abuja stadium, the billions of dollars wasted on so-called power projects, the shadowy process through which oil blocs were handed out, the absence of accountability in the management of Nigeria\u2019s oil sector, and Pentascope. Then there are the Siemens and Halliburton scandals whose stench touched a huge number of Nigerian officials.<\/p>\n
This is an agency that could not \u00a0open the\u00a0 files that Obasanjo and Atiku made available to the press during the third term roforofo fight. Every day in the newspapers we saw original copies of looted funds by Obasanjo and Atiku. What about the files of\u00a0 all the corrupt governors that EFCC promised to prosecute when the immunity shield was over in 2007.<\/p>\n
What about the\u00a0 N55m bribery scandal of\u00a0 ex -Senate President, Adolphus Wabara and ex-Minister of Education, Prof. Fabian Osuji . What about when the\u00a0 Senate\u00a0 probed the land allocations in Abuja under Obasanjo’s presidency and revealed nauseating, pervasive acts of corruption by those in charge.<\/p>\n
Just last year, we were told how big men and women, oil marketers were stealing, with the aid of politicians, billions upon billions of our\u00a0 oil money through fictitious subsidy payment .We\u00a0 know\u00a0 where this story ended. What about the\u00a0\u00a0 pension probe, the Securities and Exchange Commission probe and the two bullet proof BMW car cases involving Stella Oduah, the Minister of Aviation. What has happened to all these\u00a0 exposed corruption cases?<\/p>\n
All the above mentioned reasons and many more have made me lost faith in the EFCC. I say a big kudos to the Imo House of Assembly for\u00a0 removing\u00a0\u00a0 Agbaso. The House did well to appoint a\u00a0 credible deputy governor in the state, Prince Eze Madumere , to continue with the affairs of the state. Unless Nigerians establish the principle that a thief is a thief, regardless of his rank, and susceptible to the punishment set out in the criminal code, we run the risk of nurturing a generation of citizens who embrace the idea that it\u2019s noble to steal everything in sight.<\/p>\n
–Kenneth Uwadi, Mmahu-Egbema, Imo State, Nigeria<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In\u00a0 2011\u00a0 Jude Agbaso , a young man\u00a0 was made deputy governor of Imo state via the political connection of\u00a0 his\u00a0 elder brother Martin Agbaso . Jude had no idea…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20724,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20723","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles-opinions"],"yoast_head":"\n