Civil society group kicks against Bill seeking amnesty for looters

A civil society group, Alliance for Credible Election (ACE), has strongly kicked against the Bill in the House of Representatives seeking to grant amnesty to looters.

Similarly, ACE has equally launched a strong campaign against corruption and unveiled plans to publish list of abandoned and unexecuted federal projects in six states across the country.

Speaking yesterday at the launch of media campaign on Promoting Citizens’ Participation in the fight against Corruption in Nigeria Project, the Acting General Secretary, of ACE, Lady Mma Odi, said looters should be punished to server as deterrent to others.

According to Lady Odi, “We want the money to be recovered from looters and those who looted the nation should be punished to serve as deterrent to others.”

The General Secretary of ACE explained that the campaign project is aimed at mobilizing and strengthening the capacity of the citizens and groups to carry out the assessment of the performance of government, government agencies and the legislators in the implementation of capital budget by tracking the capital projects in their locations.

According to her, “The project represents a new departure in the fight against corruption in Nigeria. It is a national movement that builds on the history and strengths of Nigerians and their capacity to act as a collective to make change possible.

“The ultimate goal, as earlier stated, is to ensure that the Nigerians take ownership of the fight against corruption and and good governance”, she explained.

Lady Odi disclosed that one states from each of the six geo-political zones has been picked for the initial assessment.

The states, a cording to her, are Benue, Cross River, Ekiti, Gombe, Imo and Jigawa.

The goal of the project, she explained, is to promote good governance and development in Nigeria by reducing corruption to its barest minimum through tracking of the federal capital budget and advocacy campaign against corruption.

Her words, “The project is designed to target the departments and agencies of federal ministries in charge of the implementation of the capital budget and enable the legislators to perform their oversight functions by ensuring that the capital budget is implemented.

“ACE-Nigerian, in furtherance to its work on ensuring good governance in Nigeria, with support from EU through UNODC/UNDP, is implementing a project on promoting citizens participation in the light against corruption in Nigeria.

“The Alliance for Credible Elections, Promoting Citizens Participation in the Fight against Corruption in Nigeria Project, is a positive response to the lack of involvement of majority of Nigerians in the fight against corruption.

“Simply put, ACE-Nigeria Promoting Citizens Participation in the Fight Against Corruption is aimed at mobilizing and strengthening the capacity of the citizens and groups to carry out the assessment of the performance of government, government agencies and the legislators in the implementation of capital budget by tracking the capital projects in their locations in the six states of Benue,. Cross River, Ekiti, Gombe, Imo and Jigawa with a view to providing information on the performance, status and outputs of the capital projects.

“This will result in the collation of reliable data and the eventual use of the data/report to carryout campaign against corruption. This will on ensure that the capital budget is faithfully and fully implemented by the Ministries, Departments and Agencies as well as enhance the oversight functions of the MIDAS and the legislature,” she said.