Corruption: Gov Okowa tells civil servants to declare their assets

Jethro Ibileke/Asaba

Delta State Governor, Ifeanyi Okowa says corruption festers in the country due to connivance between political class and civil servants.

Okowa who said this Thursday at a rally of the affiliated unions of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC), Delta state chapters, said that like all elected officials, everybody, especially the civil servants must declare their assets.

According to the Governor, civil servants has to be more vigilant, collaborate with elected and appointed government officials to step out corruption and fish out those who soil the name of civil servants in order to report and hand them over to security agencies.

He maintained that all “must lead by example and avoid corruption wherever we find ourselves, called for sustained interest in the war against corruption so that those making the state dishonorable are shown the way out and punished.

“There are good politicians, civil servants, there are also corrupt ones. I don’t know any civil servants, once you are rising it will replicate, others will speak of you so that others can emulate you. it shall no longer be business as usual. Once we find out some people are not ready to do their work, only looking for money we shall help them to find their way out.”

Earlier, the Chairman of NLC, Comrade David Ofoeyeno, flanked with his TUC counterpart, Comrade Lawson Efenedu, said the peaceful rally was not against the government and appointed and elected members of the government of Governor Okowa but directed by both unions at the national level for the sake of our incoming generation.

They called for the establishment of Special Anti Corruption Courts to try corruption cases in the country, realizing that those who have looted our treasury have become adept at using the loopholes in the procedure of regular courts to delay and in several cases subverting the course of justice.

“To ensure that all funds identified to have been stolen from the common treasury is traced and recovered to the last kobo. That all such recovered funds should be kept in a special account and appropriated for job creation, funding educational infrastructure from primary to tertiary institutions, and for upgrading our health care infrastructure,” they stated.

The more than 5,000 workers present at the rally, displayed placards bearing inscriptions such as, “Nigeria Workers are Against Corruption; Corruption is evil, let’s kill it; Corruption is worst than Boko Haram; Corruption is an enemy of progress,” and others.