Ex-PSC boss lauds Buhari’s anti-corruption campaign

From: David Onwuchekwa, Nnewi
FORMER chairman of Police Service Commis­sion, PSC, Chief Simon Okeke has revealed how he shunned a one-time Inspec­tor-General of Police, IGP, who wanted to corrupt him, on three occasions even as he commended President Muhammadu Buhari’s an­ti-corruption campaign.
Okeke who made the disclosure while speaking to newsmen at his country home, Amichi in Nnewi South Local government Area of Anambra state, said the IGP, (names with­held) approached him for the first time in his office and suggested that both of them should share the budgetary allocation to the commission and seal up the deal but he just smiled and said no.
He said on another oc­casion, the IGP walked into his office for the sec­ond time and repeated the same statement but he again replied negatively until the third time when the IGP came to his residence and said: “Look, Oga, there is too much money in this commission’s treasury for us to share and if we share it, nobody will find out.”
He said after listening to the IGP, he walked him out of his residence with these words: “I have a reputa­tion to protect and besides, apart from the fact that I come from a good fam­ily background, I am con­tented with my salary and allowances. I don’t want to soil my hands because it is against my moral rec­titude.”
“In fact, as he was still sitting down, I stood up, pick up my walking stick and barked at him: “Mr. IG, if you don’t mind, get up and leave my house immediately or I will cre­ate a scene. He hurriedly stood up and walked away, forgetting his official cap on my table but as he was leaving, I directed my aides to run after him and give him the cap which they did before he entered his ve­hicle and left.
“As soon as he left, I said to myself, “I have defeated this temptation and I kept my hands clean until I left office at the expiration of my two-term tenure. If I had succumbed to that pressure and we shared the money, as others did, probably, this Buhari anti-corruption war would have gripped me on the neck and I will be disgraced.”
“Therefore, while advis­ing public office holders to shun corruption, I com­mend Buhari for his on-go­ing war against corruption and urge him to extend the anti-corruption war to all the government ministries and parastatals, so as to re­cover the stolen wealth and use it for the development of the country, now that the oil price has fallen in inter­national market.”
On the on-going corrup­tion war in the country, Okeke who celebrated his 80th birthday anniversary recently, commended Bu­hari for the achievements so far in the corruption war and urged him to apply the same zeal in fighting dark­ness (power blackout) and terrorism.
“Now that we have known that it is corruption that is undoing this country more than ever, it is my ex­pectation that Buhari will tackle this monster called corruption headlong. If he does nothing else other than unmasking corruption and recovering the loots, curb terrorism and to an extent bring light to the darkness, his name will go down to history as a brave warrior as against past administra­tion who engaged corrup­tion with lip service.”
“We have to be pa­tient with him to wage the war and we should back him up in this cru­sade against corruption. I don’t have the statistics of those being hunted for corruption or their politi­cal leanings but we have to start from known to the unknown. The serving and former military men facing corruption charges today are not PDP members. At least, the Halliburton case has been revisited. There should be no sacred lamb. Everybody should be held responsible for his actions or inactions.”
“Prices of oil have gone down. Every body is suf­fering in Nigeria today. We have to cut our coat accord­ing to our sizes. Apart from the dwindling oil revenue, corruption has crippled Ni­geria’s economy. Our only survival alternative now is to stop corruption and re­cover the looted treasury. The corruption war should be extended to INEC, Na­tional Assembly, PHCN, constituency projects. Why should INEC claim to have spent N80 billion to con­duct election in a state.”
“It is either corruption or lack of technical knowl­edge that kept us in dark­ness today. China used only $20 billion US Dollars to create 40,000 megawatts of electricity. Yet Nigeria is still hovering around three, four and five mega­watts with all the billions of naira sunk into PHCN. I am therefore giving Buhari an assignment to tackle corruption, terrorism and darkness headlong.”

Share on Google Plus

About The Nigerian Blogger

This is a short description in the author block about the author. You edit it by entering text in the "Biographical Info" field in the user admin panel.