From Ahmed Kaigama, Bauchi
An Nongovernmental Organisation, Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) has called on the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to seriously investigate diversion of relief materials meant for various IDPs camps across the Northeast sub-region of the country.
The Centre Executive Director, Ya’u Zakari Ya’u said in a statement made available to newsmen at weekend in Bauchi, that those needy and unfortunate Nigerians referred to as IDPs are victims of Boko Haram insurgents.
“We like to reiterate that corruption cannot be corruption by mere official declaration, it can only be fought when government embrace openness, transparency and demand accountability from its officials and agents,†Ya’u said.
The CITAD director explained that it is only when government embrace openness, transparency and accountability that Nigerians could view the promise it made of ridding the country of endemic corruption.
Ya’u therefore wondered why the federal government lacks proper instrument or institution to deal with issues of IDPs which he attributed to failure of the government to domesticate the African Convention on the Protection of IDPs, otherwise known as the Kampala Declaration.
“Without such, government has been relying on adhoc structure and diversion of relief materials and corruption is the results. This therefore is the time that government must put in place a proper IDPs policyâ€.
He recalled that on several occasions both the states and federal governments have been alerted on the issue of relief material diversion, but they often either dismissed or make noises and let the matter to continue unabated.
According to the centre, this is not the way a government elected on the basis of its promise to stem out corruption in the country should respond to the unscrupulous acts of corruption.
http://www.peoplesdailyng.com/probe-diversion-of-idps-relief-materials-citad-urges-efcc/
