By Lateef Ibrahim, Abuja
A non-governmental organisation, NGO, the Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC), has expressed it’s full support for the call for the introduction of special courts to try corruption cases.
The MURIC similarly declared that rapists should be castrated while kidnappers should be given long jail terms.
The organisation urged the National Assembly to expedite action on the establishment of special courts particularly to try corrupt public officials.
MURIC, in a statement yesterday by its Director, Prof Ishaq Akintola, expressed its support with the call made by the acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, (EFCC), Mr. Umar Abba Mohammed, for the establishment of Special Courts to try corruption cases.
The EFCC’s acting Chairman had made the call while receiving members of the Monitoring Committee of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA), who paid him a working visit.
Noting that though the war on corruption has registered some convictions and scored victory in some areas, the organisation stressed that it is very glaring that many cases are being delayed in court courtesy of legal technicalities.
Many certificated kleptomaniacs, MURIC noted, are still hiding under the indulging umbrella of legal razzmatazz to delay and consequently frustrate and escape justice.
It reasoned that special courts will remove such obstacles and ensure that cases are speedily and efficiently disposed of.
According to MURIC, “We therefore reiterate our call for the establishment of special courts for trying those who steal public funds.
“Life imprisonment and death penalty may appear too radical but that is exactly what will scare rogues and fraudsters away from the Nigerian political landscape leaving room for honest and hardworking citizens who nurse a genuine wish to contribute their own quota to national development.
“Those who frustrated all efforts to make Nigerians enjoy 24-hour power supply, but who themselves install four or five silent and powerful generators in their homes should not be allowed to use those generators.
“They should be thrown into dark dungeons and denied access to both daylight and electricity for life.
“A special prison should be constructed for those who steal pensioners money.
“The inmates of this jail should be in chains 24/7. Rapists should be castrated while kidnappers should be given long jail terms.
l”This reclassification of punishments will deter criminally-minded Nigerians.
“We therefore charge the National Assembly to expedite action on the establishment of special courts particularly to try corrupt public officials.
“The present NASS is on course and it should not relent until it gives Nigeria special courts.
“The machinery for enacting a bill on special courts for corruption into law should be set in motion in the NASS without any delay.
“There is every reason to believe that the executive is ready and willing.
“The legislature should play its own role because democracy is all about separation of powers.
“It is only when the legislature has done its duty that the judiciary can make a move.
“Only then can we add some bite to the war against graft. Posterity will not forgive any arm of government that fails to play its own role.
“The infrastructural development which we see in various places have been made possible by the fact that Nigeria now has an incorruptible leader”, it said.
