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Tuesday 14 October 2014

Seized $15m: Niger Delta activist hails South Africa, tells Jonathan to stop defending corruption

Niger Delta youth leader, Comrade Timi Frank, has thanked Jacob Zuma, President of South Africa and his Government for the recent seizure of $9.3 million and $5.7 million that was allegedly illegally moved to his country by the Federal Government of Nigeria supposedly for the purchase of arms and ammunition.
In a statement made available to DailyPost on Monday, Frank thanked to Mr. Zuma “for a job well done in helping to checkmate this apparent act of corruption through questionable transactions emanating from Nigeria at this time”.
He expressed hope that the United States, Britain, France, China, Japan, Dubai and other African Governments would emulate South Africa in helping to curb corruption in Nigeria especially by intercepting all questionable transactions and proceeds of corruption from Nigeria.

The letter reads further: “We are not unmindful about the fusillade of criticisms that have trailed this patriotic action of yours to have impounded the money until satisfactory explanations are tendered by the Nigerian Government who have claimed ownership of the money. But we want to urge you not to relent in your efforts to help fight corruption in Nigeria despite the scathing criticisms, name calling and fierce intimidation.
“We also want to use this medium to tell the Nigerian Government to stop defending the indefensible. They should own up to reality now that the cat is out of the bag and devise means to remedy the image of the country that has taken undue bashing as a result of this diplomatic fiasco.
“We believe that it is more beneficial to use the time and efforts now being deployed by Nigerian government officials in blaming the South African authorities to identify and bring those responsible for this corrupt and embarrassing act to justice.
“We hold that the South African authorities have not done anything wrong as they are only being strict against corruption in and outside their national boundaries, that is why we are calling on other nations to emulate South Africa.”

The activist called on President Goodluck Jonathan and his government to be fair to Nigerians, noting that “Mr. President is not unaware that corruption is the order of the day in his government today and that urgent and drastic measures are needed to curtail the corruption in Nigeria. Let’s stop with the conspiracy theories, let’s stop defending corruption”.
According to him, recent events showed that the South African Government did not condone or defend corruption like the Nigerian Government.
Continuing, Frank noted that “Today, South Africa agencies are investigating their own president; a similar action in Nigeria would be regarded as anathema.”
“Nigerians know the truth about what is happening. We should stop hiding under insurgency to loot public funds that ought to be channeled to developmental purposes, instead let’s thank the South African Government. Let’s cut our penchant for diverting public funds.

“These kind of illegal transactions have been going on unknown to Nigerians. But for this South African episode, Nigerians would not have known what this administration is doing with tax payer’s money”, the youth leader concluded.

Source

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