THE Economic and Financial Crimes Commission ( EFCC ) has concluded plans to arraign no fewer than six former governors in court for allegedly corruptly enriching themselves while in office.
Making the revelation on Tuesday was the chairman of the anti-graft commission, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, who told the Associated Press in an interview that the six former governors would be charged to court latest by December.
Ribadu, who declined to disclose the names of the six former governors that would soon join the list of their colleagues currently facing corruption charges, said that they might take to their heels if their identities were revealed.
�Definitely, more governors will be charged�, Ribadu said, adding that the fear of who would likely be on the list of those to be charged to court by the EFCC appeared to have already gripped the former governors.
�Governors are so afraid wherever they go now,� said Ribadu, whose commission has since begun the prosecution of no fewer than five former governors since the inception of the President Umaru Yar�Adua-led Federal Government.
The five former governors include Joshua Dariye, Jolly Nyame, James Ibori, of Plateau, Taraba and Delta states respectively.
Others are Chief Diepreye Alamieyesiegha and Alhaji Saminu Turaki of Bayelsa and Jigawa states respectively.
The commission recorded a major feat in its anti-corruption war when, a few months ago, it succeeded in securing the conviction of Chief Alamieyeseigha whose properties worth billions of dollars were confiscated by the government.
�For us to win this war against corruption, we have to start at the top and trickle down�, Ribadu said, lamenting that the elite were the ones hampering the rule of law.
It will be recalled that a leeway was provided for the EFCC to try many of the former governors following the conclusion of their tenure last May, a development which signalled the termination of their erstwhile immunity guaranteed by the 1999 Constitution.
Since then, allegations of corrupt practices and squandering of taxpayers� money given to them in form of allocation by the Federal Government in order to develop their different states and bring the dividends of democracy to the electorate have since been rolling out.
Ribadu also said he sensed an increased intolerance for corruption in Nigeria, pointing to the public outcry over the case of the speaker of the House of Representatives.
�There is a silent revolution triggered by this fight against corruption,� Ribadu said.