A compendium of high profile corruption and financial crimes in Nigeria worth over N2trillion has been presented on Sunday.
The report presented by the Human and Environmental Development Agenda (HEDA), an anti-corruption NGO, involved 47 former governors, 10 former Ministers/Presidential advisers, three Senators, two judges, among others.
The report was unveiled at an occasion to celebrate the 2018 World Anti-Corruption Day in Lagos.
A peep into the report indicated that the cases involved some high profile corruption cases already in the public domain; among them is the infamous $2.1bn arms deal involving a former National Security Adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki (rtd).
Also in the compendium were some beneficiaries of the Dasuki scam which have been either mentioned or being prosecuted by the anti-corruption agencies.
Chairman of HEDA Resource Centre, Olanrewaju Suraj said the compendium was compiled through the help of researchers.
According to him, the extent of corruption in Nigeria is such that people now lack regard for decency.
“What we have done is to bring back to life what is already trending within the Nigerian political circles to the extent that people now even celebrate their being investigated for financial cases with glee.
“It is not what used to be the experience when we were actually growing up. What we see now is people accused of corrupt practices would still throw up celebration the next day,” he said.
Premium Times founder and Publisher, Mr. Dapo Olorunyomi who presented the report described it as mindboggling.
He also pointed out the failure of Nigeria to prosecute those mentioned in the infamous Panama Papers where many Nigerians were listed to operate offshore accounts.
He said in all the countries where government officials were mentioned in the Panama, it is only Nigeria that nobody has been prosecuted.
Human Rights activist/lawyer, Mr. Femi Falana also noted that few Nigerians had cornered the resources meant to provide social amenities for the citizens.
This explains while individuals were burdened with all sorts of requests for support from relatives when it is supposed to be government’s responsibility, he said.
