Corruption politicians have no moral authority to claim right abuse

The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, says corrupt politicians who are currently being probed by the anti-corruption agencies have no moral authority to claim their rights were being infringed on. 

He said this was because their alleged actions had deprived other people of their rights and led to countless deaths and suffering.

The minister was speaking on Thursday during a visit to the Women FM 91.7 radio station in Ogun State.

He added that such claims of human rights infringement would not deter President Muhammadu Buhari in his war against corruption. He also added that the Federal Government was not selective in its anti-corruption war as being claimed saying it was expected that the Peoples Democratic Party which was in power for 16 years should be the focus of the probes.

He said, “The Federal Government is being criticised for infringing on human rights. This is not true. People who have stolen billions of naira have no moral authority to be claiming human rights when their theft left to the infringements of other people’s rights, deaths and suffering. We want Nigerians to weigh the matter. Fifty five Nigerians stole over N1.34tn in eight years. Should we now jettison the rights of 170 million Nigerians whose rights have been tampered with because of these few people who have stolen the country blind?

“When we start talking about human rights, we need to put the issue in the right perspectives. The granting of bail is at the discretion of the court of law and when there is a tendency that someone is likely to jump bail, such a right may be declined.”

He added that inadequate funding was one of the factors hindering the EFCC in prosecuting high-profile corruption cases saying, “While it takes just little time to prosecute an average offender, it takes seven years to prosecute a high-profile person for corruption charges. This is because the corrupt leaders can afford to hire the smartest lawyers which even the EFCC cannot afford to hire. Finance is crippling the operations of the anti-graft commission.”