Onitsha, Eastern Nigeria
Monday 4th Oct 2021
The Int’l Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law is commending the Proprietors, financiers and management of the Premium Times for striving to uphold accountability, probity and integrity at all levels involving state actors and non state actors and bodies corporate in Nigeria or any part thereof. This, the Premium Times is trying to do by keeping very important persons including chief executive officers of multi billion naira investments/companies, serving and former public office holders and social enterprises and their heads, among others on their toes. This commendable bold step by Premium Times is geared towards drastically trimming down, if not totally eradicating bureaucratic, corporate and political institutional corruption, in accordance with Sections 15(5), 22 and 39 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999.
By the provisions of Section 15(5) of the Chapter Two, under Fundamental Objectives and Directive Principles of State Policy: the State (i.e. Government and all authorities and persons) shall abolish all corrupt practices and abuse of power; and by Section 22 of same: the press (all forms of media including Premium Times), shall at all times be free to uphold the fundamental objectives contained in this Chapter and uphold the responsibility and accountability of the Government to the People. By Section 39 of the Chapter Four (Fundamental Human Rights): every person (natural and corporate person) shall be entitled to freedom of expression including freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart ideas and information without interference. These authorities are just to cite but a few.
Therefore, to the extent that Premium Times undertakes to uphold these important and critical corporate civic responsibilities by ensuring that respected citizens truly represent who they said they are and what they represent, it is very commendable; provided that such investigations are conducted outside mischief and destructive political sponsorship. Any investigating media group must also come clean in terms of corporate integrity and foundational soundness and uprightness. This is because it is one thing to launch an investigation against anybody or institution but another is finding the person or institution irrefutably involved over the allegation prompting the investigation. It also raises suspicions and questions when an investigating body goes all out of professional etiquette or principles to import; concoct and mischievously indict or usurp the roles of the investigating, indicting and prosecuting policing and judicial sentencing authorities.
Totality of the above, therefore, is the reason why we titled this statement “a commendable watery investigative finding by Premium Times on Obi”. That is to say that “though the Premium Times investigation was commendable but it ended up finding nothing that is immorally shocking and gravely corruptive against Obi. The media group also went out of professionalism to import, concoct and mischievously indict-thereby raising strong suspicion as per the genuineness and independence of the investigation and its likelihood of political sponsorship over 2023 Presidential Election. We had expected the Premium Times to have stated at its introduction that its investigation is across board and that the likes of Bola Tinubu, Nasiru el-Rufai and Babatunde Fashola, etc are the next, so as to disabuse the minds of those that may hold strongly that they are holding sinister briefs for the trio over 2023 Poll.
Global Anti Graft Law Is Founded On “Mala Inse” Against Corruption
Corruption generally is founded on grave immorality and character disrepute, leading to public office stealing or looting of public or corporate treasury or laundering of stolen public funds and investment of same in overseas investments of the launderer. In global law guiding corruption, it is divided into:”mala inse against corruption” or corruption law with universal application and enforcement beyond international jurisprudential boundaries (bordering on rottenness of character and incurable public office thievery) and “mala prohibita against corruption” or jurisprudentially and territorially restrictively defined law on corruption such as law on asset declaration in Nigeria. A person, therefore, is morally and globally said to be “corrupt” when he or she is duly investigated by the State and judicially found to have breached “mala inse against corruption”. In other words, same goes if he or she goes to another country with such gravity of corruptive baggage. An example is a Nigerian political figure, exposed locally and internationally for stashing away stolen public funds in the United States.
In the case of “mala prohibita against corruption”, which Premium Times conclusively purported and imported against Peter Obi, it is technically undetermined both in the eyes of law and criminology and cannot therefore be morally and popularly ascribed to the person and character of Peter Obi as “corrupt politician” or “corrupt former public office holder” or “corrupt Nigerian born international multibillion investor” as well as “self acclaimed saintly public speaker”. The worst of it all was the editorial wordings of the Premium Times contained in its introductory page and body paragraphs. The wordings are utterly unprofessional, vindictive and procurable. Nigerians and readers including thinkable and lettered Anambra taxpayers have been busy in the past hours searching to locate where the Premium Times disclosed where and how billions of naira worth of stolen Anambra public funds were looted by Obi and channeled into his overseas investments, yet they are nowhere to be found. This is more so when the only public office occupied by Peter Obi was to be Anambra Governor for eight years, from 17th March 2006 to 17th March 2014 and no official records have found him wanting till date. We are also not aware if it has now become a crime to invest overseas or for overseas companies to invest in Nigeria.
We are fully aware that Nigerian political, economic, media and human rights or civil society spaces have been infiltrated and substantially taken over by crooks that have brutally lowered morality, integrity and nobility and replaced and elevated them with crookedness and rapacious immorality. This is to the extent that crooks and looters have become saints. On the other hands, social saints and change agents have now been made villains, public enemies and Hell Gate keepers. The social systems in the present day Nigeria have been so corrupted and bastardized that it is risky and dangerous joining forces in the Rights Civil Society as “Aluta Comrades”; when not less than 320 CSOs are found to be linked to the State with over 90% of them formed or incorporated since mid 2015.
Finally, in 2009, Intersociety was the only group that dragged Peter Obi to EFCC and IGP over erroneously alleged N250m money laundering and the petitions subsisted until he was cleared by the two anti graft agencies and our private investigation. In January 2013, we again rose as the only group and forensically investigated Ezu River corpses dumping, perpetrated by Anambra Police SARS. Obi was condemned in our report for not heeding to call to set up a judicial commission of enquiry. Therefore, for standing out as a remarkable achiever in public office and prudent manager of public funds, Obi must be supported to stand tall and shoulder high at all times. We are also aware that Obi as one of the few highly respected former public office holders in Southern Nigeria has been harassed by the State and invited for several questionings for more than 24 times by its coercive agencies since mid 2015 and at the end of each of them, nothing was found. The Premium Times report on Peter Obi is therefore not only dead on arrival but also appears politically motivated and ill-conceived.
Signed:
For:
International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law
Principal Officers:
Emeka Umeagbalalsi, Obianuju Igboeli Esq., Chidimma Udegbunam, Esq.
Contacts: Phone/WhatsApp: +2348174090052
Email: info@intersociety-ng.org
Website: https://intersociety-ng.org