Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), yesterday in Dubai, United Arab Emirate, said his agency will begin a large swoop on corrupt politicians, in its effort to stop corrupt Nigerians from participating in electioneering process.
According to EFCC Chairman, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, �we are going to put more corrupt persons in the cage. We must fast-track our development by getting rid of bad leaders in our country.�
He said 2007 elections shall witness �a great change in Nigeria. We are going to get those who are corrupt, thieves among us. We must stop them from leading us again in this country. Any person who has questionable character will never contest election in this country again.
�Many of those who are asking to rule cannot make it, because they have one or two questions to answer, there are bad deals in their records. We must be on the guard for those people. If you are leaving in a society or community, you must know those who are good and bad, those with bad records.
� We must not allow them to contest in the coming election, not to talk of ruling us again. That is what we are going to do which you know we have started and we shall continue to do it, once beaten twice shy.
�We know those who can deliver justice, who are fair and those who can not deliver. We must not allow the bad ones to corrupt them.
�Our past leaders have disappointed us in so many ways and we are not going to allow it again. The system is messed up across board, we are going to change from now. Nigeria will witness a change that our children will leave to tell a story that there was a man who had this country in mind.
�The country must be fast- tracked in our development and we must have right thinking people to get things going well in the country like other countries of the world,� he said.
According to ribadu, �we have to clear up the system. We have to continue getting things right and doing the work we have started. We must stop bad people from getting into government, controlling things and also stop them from destroying the little things that we have put together.
�We have to get the rule of law to work for us; the guiding principle must be right and positive, to get the system to work like other countries. Accountability and transparency must be our guarding words,� he said.
Reacting to the World Bank report on Nigeria being in the category of the collapsing countries, Ribadu said �I must not be put off with that comment. I will say it is a wake-up call for Nigerians to make the fight against corruption in our country work.
�We must continue with the institutionalisation of the reform, so that no other person comes and puts us back to be where we were before now. We cannot afford to go back from this reform and must not close our eyes from what we are doing, instead, we must put things in order, to sustain the fight against corrupt leaders still living among us, using their corrupt money to fool the rest,� he said, adding that he knows those who will be president of this country but will not mention names, but promised that when the �time comes, we shall see.�
Sep182006