The founder and pioneer national chairman of the All Progressives Grand Alliance, Chief Chekwas Okorie, has expressed confidence that Engr. Farouk Ahmed, the immediate past chief executive officer of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority, will not escape prosecution due to the high-profile nature of the whistleblower in the corruption claims against him.
Farouk resigned from his position on Wednesday amid corruption allegations initiated by business mogul Aliko Dangote.
In an exclusive interview with Saturday INDEPENDENT, Okorie observed that while many previous corruption allegations against public office holders were often ignored, he believes this case will likely be handled differently.
He said, “The concern of many Nigerians have been that when people are accused of corruption they’re treated with levity. Here, we’re talking about huge sums of money running into several billions of Naira by just an individual and at the end of the day what you get from the government is a slap on the wrist and the person walks away.
“There’ve been many examples in the past and this one will be unique, if the allegation came from the person of Aliko Dangote and they had their petition and they researched all the allegations before going public, so it’ll be a bit difficult for those in authority, especially the ICPC to sweep this one under the carpet because of the caliber of the person who blew the whistle. We’ve had people who embezzled pension funds and all sorts of things. Even in the case of Emefiele, it’s still hanging there. He’s not in any detention and one day the case will also disappear.
“We’ve had a case of a former managing director of the NNPC whose own blood sister, exposed through a whistle blowing and recovered up to 9 million US dollars in cash which he kept in his residence in Kaduna and he was detained and after a while the court even got him released and said the money was gift from his friends.
“I don’t know when a public officer will be entitled to such huge gifts and it won’t be corruption. So there’re so many cases in the past. We hope this one won’t go like that but one day we’ll have a president, by the grace of God, who won’t tolerate any form of corruption, but use corrupt people to set the example so that our public officers will know that nobody is above the law but as of today the governors, the serving governors are the worst culprits because they steal more than anyone can imagine.
“When Dr. Nzeribe was alive he used to say that the bad thing about stealing is that once you begin you never stop and you steal what you need and also steal what you don’t need and that’s what I find in some of our public officers. When you hear the amount of money they misappropriate or embezzle you begin to wonder what was going on in their minds when they began to accumulate such funds to the detriment of the society. Governors steal sufficient money to be able to take care of the anti-corruption agencies and even when eventually they end up in court they have enough money left to take care of the judges. It’s so sad and that’s why Nigerians must be resolute about who they elect into public office, especially the office of a president and governors. People who are entrusted with public treasury to manage are the ones who are responsible for the poverty you see in the country. I pray that the case of this man will be different, he’ll be prosecuted to the limits of the law.”
