Still on Koko’s missing fund

By Okofu Ubaka

THE missing Koko money is one in several unreported cases of gross corruption at the community level. There is no gainsaying that most communities in the Niger Delta region of the country would have been an eldorado in terms of human and infrastructural development if money allocated for such were not misappropriated by community representatives. Little wonder, government efforts, as well as those of other interventionist agencies have not yielded significant results in this region. As a nation, we are going to  remain at the bottom of  the chart of the comity of nations  if nothing is done urgently  to stamp out corruption from all facets of governance.

There is a pulsating fear that men of the Port Harcourt zone of  Economic and Finance Crime Commission currently investigating the Kokogate a too slow on the job.  Frankly speaking, I am uncomfortable with the undue delay in arraigning the suspects of the Kokogate. Justice delay is denial. How long does it take an EFCC  Investigating Officer, (EIO) to make out facts from traces of transfers already recorded by the bank? The records of all the transactions are there. The branch manager of the domicile account bank has made confessional statements. What else does the EFCC need to arraign the accused persons?

The essence of law is to check and regulate human conducts in a defined society. Meting out a prescribed punishment to perpetrators of crime is  to deter criminally minded individuals from venturing into crime. Hence, deterrent gives validity to the theory of punishment. We are where we are today because we took corruption for granted. If we must reverse the deteriorating  image of the country, those who have committed crime should be made to face the law. So far, The EFCC under Ibrahim Magu deserved commendation for the various arraignment and  also securing the convictions of some of the arraigned  persons.

But the people of Koko, owners of the stolen resources are disturbed over the undue length of time the investigation of the Koko fraud is taking. Months after a petition, vis-a-viz whistle blowing  was submitted to the Port Harcourt zone of the anti-graft command, the suspects are still walking the streets of Koko in high shoulders and boasting that men of the EFCC are only interested in a portion of the contents of suspects’ frozen personal accounts. I ask, is it because what was stolen does not belong to the federal government, and a reason for this lukewarmness on the part of the anti-graft agents ? But the truth remains that what has been stolen by these  members of Koko community is public funds ?

The time is now for the anti-graft agent to beam its binocular in all directions with a view to fish out cases of corruption and deal squarely with them. Suffice to say that the chairman of the Advisory Committee on anti Corruption Crusade, Prof. Itse Sagay must come down from ‘his high horse’ and peep into the administration of public funds at the community level. Coincidentally, he hails from an oil producing community. Pursuing  fraudulent politicians and those who did business with the federal government is commendable yet, there is the urgent need to investigate corruption vigorously at the community levels if  the hydro-headed menace called corruption must  be wipe out of our country very fast.

In  a conversation with with Prof. Lucky Akaruese, (a a Philosophy lecturer in the University of Port Harcourt),said  the story of the missing fund is unfortunate. According to him,  there has not been a reason to cast aspersion on  some of the  key players in the missing money rumpus. More baffling to the Prof. is the fact that: “some of the names reportedly associated with the said missing fund appear too ‘decent’ and old to be involved in such a magnitude of criminality. What will such persons for example do with such amount of millions of Naira allegedly diverted by them? I have serious doubt about the allegations. Let’s look to the EFCC to do their job with utmost fairness.” The  Prof. noted that : “…if these allegations are true, the petitioners will remain my heroes and the law must take its cause without any emotional consideration”.

At first, the Koko theft was too shameful to be true until the anti-graft agents’ chilling invitation of four elders named in the illegal withdrawal and transfer of the community fund. But those involved have kept mute for months, a reason the EFCC must rise up to the occasion by arraigning the suspects as quick as possible. The anti graft agents must justify President Muhammadu Buhari’s commitment to fight corruption at any levels of governance as well as give the people of Koko reason to restore confidence in its operation.

*Mr. Ubaka, a  lawyer, wrote from Koko, Warri-North LGA, Delta State

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