The judiciary and anti-graft agencies are yet to resolve several key corruption cases tht began since the return of democracy in 1999, the Human and Environmental Development Agenda (HEDA) Resource Centre (HEDA) has said.
In a report titled “Impunity Galore: A Chronicle of Some High Profile, Unresolved Corruption Cases in Nigeria”, the Civil Society Organization spearheading the fight against corruption in the country gave the total value of the cases at over N1.6 trillion and $825.68 billion.
The report focussed on corruption cases investigated by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission ( EFCC), Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC), the Senate and House of Representatives Committees of the National Assembly between 1999 and 2022.
On Saturday, HEDA charged the judiciary and government anti-graft agencies to be more proactive in handling corruption cases and dispensing justice in order to have a less corrupt society.
Presenting the five-chapter publication, the Chairman of HEDA, Olanrewaju Suraju, said a lot of developments in the fight and campaign against corruption informed its decision to reflect on the numerous cases of corruption and probes that have not made it to the court and have remained unconcluded to date.
Suraju said the events of recent years have shown that impunity has remained unstoppable, adding that in many of the cases, it is either investigation was not completed, committee reports were not made public, white-paper not released or there is clear sabotage within and or outside the government.
The anti-corruption advocate further maintained that the cases listed in the chronicle were not exhaustive and the selection has not been discriminatory in any manner.
“We have only tried as much as possible to report such high profile cases as much as we can find stories and report on. So, even if we missed some, perhaps we may be able to update them in the near future. However, we have done our best to cover the most ground,” Suraju said.
The Executive Secretary, HEDA Resource Center, Sulaiman Arigbabu, said corruption thrives in the country because some already existing cases were not given fair hearings and treatment.
Arigbabu thanked the media for documenting some of the corruption cases which serve as research data, encouraging them to continue to give light to issues that are critical to the survival of the country.
