Vice President Yemi Osinbajo Wednesday, said the anti-corruption war in the country must take a new turn for it to succeed.

Osinbajo stated this at the opening of a two-day capacity building workshop for justices and judges, organised by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in collaboration with the National Judicial Institute (NJI) in Abuja.

Highlights:

• “We are re-jigging the entire system; the Chief Justice of the Federation has laid down the rules and he has encouraged everyone to follow suit.
• “There is no question at all that this is the time for us to open a new page in the entire anti-corruption fight.’’
• The Vice President, who expressed joy that the judiciary was on board, assured of the executive’s support in ensuring effective investigation of cases and speedy dispensation of justice.
• Osinbajo observed that all the nations that succeeded in winning the war against graft had to change their administration of justice system as well as the methods of investigation and trial of corruption cases.
• “If the fundament of justice is undermined, everything is undermined,’’ he said.
• The Vice President noted that the Boko Haram insurgency also escalated because of the diversion of funds meant to prosecute the war.
• He added that the reason the country did not build any new infrastructure in the last six years in spite of the huge oil revenue was because of corruption by government officials.
• “Corruption threatens our security, health, education and even our corporate existence,’’ he said, adding that it was the reason that Garvey, a global health fund for the vaccine provision in developing countries, withdrew support for Nigeria for alleged mismanagement of funds between 2011 and 2013.
• He stated that the country had to refund $2.2 million, adding that the drugs were meant to fight HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria amongst the poor.
• He said that a lot of funds in the hands of the corrupt were used to subvert justice, bribe government officials, judicial officers, media and subvert the legislature.

Omoleye Omoruyi

Omoleye Omoruyi… an apprentice web/game developer, novelist, sensitive to happenings in the world. Meet him @Lord_rickie on Twitter/Instagram