Human Environmental Development Agenda (HEDA) Resource Centre, at the weekend, said Nigeria lost N1,623,584,000,000 and $825,679,500,000 to corrupt officials between 1999 and 2022.
It made the startling revelation at a press briefing during public presentation of a publication titled, “Impunity Galore: A chronicle of some unresolved high profile corruption cases in Nigeria.”
Its Chairman, , told reporters that the title was coined after intensive research on events of recent years, which showed that impunity has remained unabated.
He said: “In many of the cases, it is either investigation was not completed, committee report not made public, white-paper not released or there is clear sabotage within and or outside government.
“It is also noteworthy that the cases listed in this chronicle are not exhaustive and the selection has not been discriminated 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 most grounds.”
Suraju pointed out that the document is a collection of corruption cases being investigated by the Economic Financial Crime Commission (EFCC), Independent Corrupt Practices and other related Offences Commission (ICPC) and relevant committees of the National Assembly.
“The collection is centred on cases between 1999 and 2022,” he clarified.
The Executive Secretary, Sulaimon Arigbabu, observed that the petitions and legal action being executed by the organisation were to help to keep these humongous cases of graft evergreen in the memories of Nigerians.
“So, we try to keep a public view on the issues of corruption that had either suffered in the legal process or with this latest work, we are doing those issues that didn’t make it through the court process and some that didn’t go there,” he explained.
Guardian News
