People With Questionable Character Should Not Hold Public Office – CSO’s

Coalition of Civil Society Organisations have called on President Bola Tinubu to ensure that people with questionable character are not allowed to hold political offices.

They made the call at a news conference in Abuja tagged “Anti Corruption Agenda Setting for the new Administration in Nigeria”.

The leader of the coalition, Mr. Auwal Musa-Rafsanjani stressed that for Nigeria to win the war against corruption, necessary reforms in all sectors especially the judiciary, national assembly and security must be embarked on to ensure political appointees work in line with laid down rules devoid of selfish interest.

Speaking on the Public Procurement Act, Mr Musa-Rafsanjani said the Act was introduced to provide legal and institutional frameworks that would prohibit and prevent Money Laundering in the country as part of intensified efforts towards the adoption and implementation of the Financial Action Task Force to curb corruption. You Can Also Read : IPC Launches Media Election IOS Web App

According to Mr. Musa-Rafsanjani Asset recovery had high-level political support of the immediate past administration. However, even with a legal framework now in place, the low level of coordination of domestic stakeholders and lack of implementation of key guidelines on the management of recovered assets may adversely affect international and domestic asset recovery efforts.

He explained further, that the Pandora Papers project exposed some former and current Nigerian public office holders as having secret and suspicious assets kept away in tax havens.

“This triggered calls by Nigerians for further investigation and prosecution of the individuals who have allegedly breached the country’s assets declaration laws and tax regulations.”

The group therefore called for stiffer penalties on any individual, group or agencies culpable in illicit money laundering and other vices detrimental to the nation’s peace and economic development.

Florence Adewale, Edited By Grace Namiji