Idowu Samuel, Abuja - 22.08.2009

AMID suspicion against Nigeria from across the globe on its reported corruption index, some civil society groups, drawn from all segments of the country have started mounting pressure on the Federal Government to declare a national emmergency against corruption.

The groups, Saturday Tribune learnt, are mounting pressure through the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) to which they had collectively submitted memorandum detailing how the Federal Government could stem the tide of corruption in Nigeria.

It was learnt also that the pressure group had earlier made a written submission to the Presidency, urging it to mobilise all the anti-corruption agencies for a new phase of war against corruption, in which case, efforts would be made to put steam into the nation’s criminal justice system to quickly resolve high profile cases of corruption in the country.

Top officials of ICPC are said to be studying the memo by the pressure groups with a view to fine-tuning the recommendations, which made a strong suggestion for the commission to network with President Umaru Yar’Adua on the time frame for declaring national emergency on the fight against corruption.

The ICPC chairman, Justice Emmanuel Ayoola, had recently in Abakaliki, Ebonyi State, reflected the thinking of the civil society groups when he advocated a penal policy which, in his view, would prescribe mandatory and long sentences for anyone culpable of corrupt acts in Nigeria.

Ayoola had stressed that the sentences against corrupt individuals should be served for a period of open and community service in any part of Nigeria, notwithstanding the status of the convict.

tribune