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The President Muhammadu Buhari-led federal government has said it will soon publish names of about 200 individuals who acquired properties across the country though corrupt means.
The Special Assistant to President Buhari on Prosecution, who also doubles as the chairman of the Special Investigation Panel on the Recovery of Public Property, Mr. Okoi Obono-Obla disclosed this on Thursday in Abuja.
Obono-Obla said the feat was made possible through a new software application for tracking illicit properties in the country developed by a civil society organization, African Network for Environment and Economic Justice (ANEEJ) which was inaugurated same day.
The application called ‘propati tracka’ is an online platform for mapping and sharing information on the owners of property in specific districts of Abuja, according to ANEEJ Executive Director, Mr. David Ugolor.
Further, he said the affected properties are located in highbrow areas such as Maitama in Abuja and are linked to serving and past public office holders.
Speaking, he said: “Let them tell us where they got the money to build these massive properties.
“If they cannot explain, let them quietly return it to Nigerians,” he stated categorically.
Inaugurating the properties tracker platform, he said the fight against corruption is for all Nigerians because “we are all victims of corruption.”
An analyst with ElombahNews [names withheld], however, questioned the morality of Mr. Obono-Obla to keep serving the federal government in any capacity as a corruption fighter.
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He recalled that the Special Investigation Panel on the Recovery of Public Property chairman was indicted in fraud by the House of Assembly.
During an investigative inquiry by a House panel, an officer of the West African Examination Council [WAEC] had testified that Mr. Obono-Obla forged the WAEC certificate with which he enrolled into the university.
He said that the name Okoi Obono-Obla is quite a different person from the Ofem Okoi Ofem, the name with which he enrolled in the university.
The ElombahNews analyst, therefore, recounted the popular maxim that “he who goes to equity must come with clean hands”.
According to him, he who wants to bathe another must first wash his hands clean.
The fight against corruption, he said, must start in President Buhari’s immediate government.
