The Committee for the Defence of Human Rights (CDHR) on Wednesday urged President Muhammadu Buhari to fix the poor power supply problem in the country with funds recovered from corrupt Nigerians.
CDHR president, Malachy Ugwummadu and Lagos lawyer, Mr. Femi Falana, said this at an anti-corruption rally in Lagos organised in conjunction with civil society organizations, including the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and Campaign Against Corrupt leaders (CACOL).
The organisation condemned “the continued pillage of the treasury and total blackout enveloping the country.”
Ugwummadu called on the Federal Government to review the privatisation exercise in the power sector, which was meant to guarantee efficiency and value for service.
“Looters must be jailed so that it will serve as a deterrent to others,” he added.
Ugwummadu lamented that while officials milked the country dry, “poverty and deprivation remain at an all time high.”
He said: “The country produces close to two million barrels of oil (potentially) per day, but the citizens remain the poorest of the poor, barely living on less than 1 dollar per day.
“The amount of money looted and misappropriated by public officials running into trillions of naira are more than enough to provide first class hospital across the country, meet over and again the UNESCO 26 percent funding benchmark for education in the country and establish new production lines to generate employment opportunity for the teaming unemployed youths of our population.”
Falana, a former president of CDHR, said all the recovered looted funds can fix electricity “and provide basic amenities for the citizens across the country.”
The rally, featuring over 800 participants, began in Ikeja and ended at the Lagos State Governor’s Office in Alausa, where a letter was delivered by Ugwummadu to Governor Akinwunmi Ambode through the Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Mr. Tunji Bello.
A compendium on the looting of the Nigerian treasury was later launched after the rally by the CDHR at its Ikeja headquarters.
The publication lists some of the notable cases of corruption in the country since the return of democratic rule in 1999. The Nation.
