HALLIBURTON: INVESTIGATIVE COMMITTEE DECEPTIVE,
UNNECESSARY AND TIME-WASTING
The Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders (CACOL) views
the announcement by the office of the Minister of
Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF)
that an investigative committee has been constituted
for an “In-House probe” of the Halliburton scandal
as a further confirmation of our earlier position
that the
Yar’Adua administration is desperate to shield the
main Nigeria actions of the Halliburton bribery
mess. The germane question here now is why an
investigative committee is needed now to unravel the
details of the
Halliburton scandal when all the facts
surrounding the evil transaction and dramatis
personae in it are already
in the national and international public domains.
Why sudden mischievous innovation when no such was
constituted to investigate former IG Tafa Balogun
before he was exposed, indicted, convicted and
‘jailed’? Ditto for the Abacha loot, the national
identity card scandal, FCT under El-Rufai, Police
Equipment
Foundation under Mr ‘Untouchable’ Kenny Martins, several former governors,
ex-minister of Education, Madam Adenike Grange and
so many other sensational graft scandals.
Why suddenly did the Police Inspector-General
have to be imposed on the EFCC? We boldly say that
the police as it stand today as an organization
lacks the credibility to handle high-profile graft
cases because it is a thoroughly inept and an
irredeemably corrupt security agency that does not
enjoy the confidence or
respect of the general public. If the EFCC needs a
supervisory investigative committee to perform its
functions, then it does not justify its existence or
name as an independent anti-graft commission. CACOL
suspects that the Yar’Adua government has
constituted this lame duck committee only to act as
an official brake mechanism
to stop the EFCC from going the whole hog of full
investigation, revelation and prosecution of the
guilty ones in the world-class scam.
The government is merely engaging in a futile
time-buying venture that would only worsen its
already bad credibility image as far as the
anti-corruption war is concerned. The way the
government is going about this Halliburton business
is merely making mountain of a mole hill. Nobody set
up any committee in France and the USA before the
culprits in this scandal were identified,
investigated, arrested, prosecuted, convicted, and
sanctioned. Why Nigeria? The Yar’Adua’s government
is treating a few individuals as sacred cows and
untouchables who are more powerful than the Nigerian
State and government. If this is the way the
president wishes to rule Nigeria then he should
resign his office with immediate effect for
dereliction of duty and incompetence. Government and
governance are not meant for people who are confused
or who confuse the importance of a few individuals
with the supremacy of the state.
The Yar’Adua administration, using the
attorney-general, Barrister Michael Aondoakaa, is
unwittingly running a case of simple investigation
into deliberate and unnecessary complications in
order to look for a legal escape for the thieves of
our national treasury. This is a mere investigative
merry-go-round and legalistic perambulation
orchestrated and informed by self-centered political
perfidy. CACOL demands the EFCC to assert its
constitutional mandate and go ahead to redeem its
image by doing what is right by speeding up its
investigative machinery and expose the masquerades
in the Halliburton scandal and refuse to be
teleguided or intimidated by the AGF or the IGP or
even the president. Nothing worthwhile will be
achieved by the so-called investigative committee.
To that extent we demand its immediate scrapping
because it is totally unnecessary, futile, wasteful
and a mere official window dressing.
Debo Adeniran
Chairman
08037194969
dadnig@yahoo.com
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