Senator Ahmad Lawan, President of the Senate has tagged and described members of the National Assembly as genuine anti-corruption fighters.
The statement was made in Abuja on Thursday when he inaugurated an organization named Global Organization of Parliamentarians Against Corruption (GOPAC), Nigeria Chapter
Lawan explained that it was National Assembly that created the popular Indepedent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC) in 1999, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), was a child birth of the Assembly, we also created National Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) out of EFCC.
Lawan said, “Is there anyone that is better in fighting corruption than we in the Assembly? So, we are genuine anti-corruption fighters, there’s no doubt and we go all the way”.
The inauguration of GOPAC as expressed by President of the Senate will further reinforce anti-corruption campaign of the government and as well establish the importance of transparency and accountability to good governance.
He said, “corruption leads to waste and it is an obstacle to growth as we all know that illegal diversion of resources prevents development and take away opportunities for people oriented projects.
“Picturing the negative impact of corruption, the present administration made the fight against corruption its priority.
“Though there are lots to be done, government has subsequently been forthcoming in its anti-corruption drives”.
Lawan in his statement argued that Nigerian lawmakers see GOPAC as a strong and veritable tools that will aide the anti-graft war of President Muhammadu Buhari and as a step towards acheiving this, the 9th Senate will see to the presentation of the Legislative Anti-Corruption Strategy (LACS 2021), a document that outlines stages to a successful Anti-Corruption fight.
In his remark, the Chairman Senate Committee on anti-corruption, Sen. Suleiman Audu Kwari said that GOPAC was formed essentially to ensure the full implementation of United Nations convention on corruption which Nigeria was a signatory.
The Chairman of Nigerian chapter of GOPAC, Mr Kwari, said, “Corruption has become an established global problem that must be fought.
“We have developed strategies to war corruption and set the requisite platforms to implement the various legislative reforms and processes that we consider essential.”
Part of the event were presentation of certificate of fight against corruption to the President of the Senate by GOPAC chairman and goodwill messages by Justice Tanko, Nigeria Chief, heads of anti-corruption agencies, Chairman of GOPAC Worldwide and Speaker of Qatar Assembly, Mr. Abdulhadi Saeed.
