By Christiana Ekpa
Presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi has said that he would stop corruption immediately as the president of Nigeria.
According to him, corruption as part of the drawback of nation development was a social malaise that his administration would immediately arrest.
Obi said anyone who steals government money where the Labour party is elected to run the affairs of Nigeria would be dealt with decisively.
He said “We will stop stealing of government money immediately, those who do will meet what they did not bargain for,” he said while fielding questions from journàlists.
He stated that his administration would focus on bringing people out of poverty to reduce crime and promote security outside other measures to be adopted to make Nigeria safe.
The presidential candidate of the Labour no party noted that drawing lessons from other climes that have taken steps to improve their societies, his administration would do a combination of everything to bring people out of poverty.
He stated that poverty was fuelling banditry and other forms of insecurity. But as Jamaica reduced crime with sports, his administration would invest in “sports, ICT, Agriculture and a combination of other things to pull people out of poverty and promote social cohesion and safety.
He said “Noted that the crimes for which many people were arrested and imprisoned were amounts that “If these people can have a steady income, of N50,000 they will not be involved in that.”
According to him: “Nobody was safe in Brazil until Brazil decided to do what I intend to do in Nigeria, investing in people.
“In doing these things I am going to reduce crime,” he stated.
Obi who challenged other presidential candidates to speak directly to the people said, only in this clime do presidential candidates use spokesperson to communicate to Nigerians and when they get to the office, they deny ever saying such things in their name and party during the campaigns.
He re-emphasised that when in power, he would remove fuel subsidies and invest the money in alternatives that would improve the lives of the people.
He argued that fuel subsidy in Nigeria is a fraud, especially when compared to the other climes that share similarities in the population with Nigeria.
“There is no way we can be consuming 66m fuel while Pakistan uses 22m litres and we are the same population”
“There must be an alternative to invest the money of subsidy, we are going to remove it. I am promising you we are going to have a local refining site.
“We allow people to create wealth with enterprise,” he said.
Obi said when the nation attains self sufficiency in food production every other thing would follow and that can be achieved by the Labour party which wants honesty in the reinvestment of the fuel subsidy regime.
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