Pubdate: Fri, 29 Feb 2008
Source: This Day (Nigeria)
Copyright: 2008 This Day.
Contact:  http://www.thisdayonline.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2870

FG: WE'LL NOT ALLOW GOVS TO LOOT

Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Michael  Aondoakaa, said 
yesterday that the Federal Government  has taken measures to ensure 
that governors do not  indulge in corrupt practices.

"We will not allow the new set of governors to be  involved in 
corrupt practices", Aondoakaa said in Abuja  at a workshop on the 
Validation of National Drug  Control Master Plan.

The workshop was jointly organised by the NDLEA and the  United 
Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). "We  will nip it in the 
bud by strengthening theoperations  of anti corruption agencies such 
as the EFCC, ICPC and  the NDLEA," he said.

He said the government would take preventive measures,  instead of 
waiting to arrest corrupt governors after  their tenure."Those the 
governors use in looting  treasuries will be arrested because they do 
not steal  directly but indirectly. So those involved will be 
arrested and prosecuted when the governors are in  office," he explained.

Aondoakaa said trans-border crimes, money  laundering,terrorism and 
other forms of crimes were the  resultanteffect of illicit drug 
activities. He also  said cultivation of Indian hemp, opium poppy and 
coca  plants, instead of cash and food crops, had their  attendant 
effects on the nation's economy. Aondoakaa  said Nigeria would not 
relent in the effort to tackle  the menace of illicit drug 
cultivation, trafficking and  abuse

.In his address, NDLEA Chairman, Ahmadu Giade, said the  workshop was 
to initiate new techniques to counter  sophisticated tactics of drug 
barons." Nigerians have  no business dealing in illicit drugs, given 
our  abundant natural resources."

It is unimaginable for anyone to ingest hard drugs  knowing that a 
little leakage in one wrap could  terminate life in few seconds," 
Giade said. The  Country Represen-tative of UNODC, Dagmar Thomas, 
said 200 million people worldwide were estimated to have  consumed 
illicit drugs at least once in the last one  year.

Thomas said about 254 drug couriers were arrested at  the Murtala 
Mohammed International Airport Lagos in the  first quarter of 2007. 
She said Lagos, Kano and Abuja  International Airports, with their 
direct flight  connections to the Middle East, Europe and the U.S., 
as well as major ports and container terminals, required  urgent attention.
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