Fighting Corruption Like Taking On Drug Cartels, Says Ex-Kano Anti-graft Tzar

Oluchi Chibuzor

The fight against corruption in Nigeria is as dangerous as fighting armed Colombian drug cartels, a former Chairman of the Kano State Public Complaints and Anti-corruption Commission (PCACC), Muhyi Magaji Rimin Gado, has said.

Gado, also warned that the increase in violence and banditry in the North was partly linked to the naked abuse and stealing of public funds by corrupt officials whose self-serving policies, according to him, create a stagnant pool of poverty and misery from which criminals find many potential recruits.

He spoke as a keynote speaker on the topic, ‘Youth as Catalyst of Integrity: Building a Corruption-Free Future for Nigeria,’ at the public presentation of the 19th edition of the Compendium on 100 Profile Corruption Cases in Nigeria held in Lagos, recently.

The event was organised by the Human and Environmental Development Agenda (HEDA Resource Centre) in partnership with local and international groups to mark this year’s International Anti-Corruption Day celebration. The theme of the conference was ‘Uniting with Youth Against Corruption: Shaping Tomorrow’s Integrity’.

He also revealed that it was when he started investigating corruption petitions, doing his statutory duties, that he discovered the suspected companies were allegedly linked to a former governor, adding that a lot of private public partnership initiatives were also linked to the said Governor.

He said he also discovered billions of illicit funds relating to the state Internally Generated Revenue (IGR), especially concerning alleged fraudulent land rents.

The anti-corruption crusader said his experience while investigating an avalanche of corruption cases in Kano indicated that corrupt politicians were like cancerous ailments that should be removed through a painful but necessary surgical operation before Nigeria can reclaim her pride in the comity of nations.

Gado, said Nigerians should explore democratic opportunities to the brim by casting their votes against a league of corrupt elites that have sold the birthrights of the people.

He said his decision to investigate the looting of billions of public funds in Kano spurred ceaseless threats to his life and that of his family, culminating in his arrest by tens of armed security guards who drove him from Kano to Abuja in the night where he was locked up.

Furthermore, Gado, said that for 17 hours, he and his family were subjected to harrowing experiences.

He also said that the armed men bundled him into a vehicle where he was sandwiched between armed policemen who drove in the night from Kano to Abuja in order to gag him.

He said if armed bandits had attacked the convoy, there was only a slim chance that any of them would escape.

“The cases I started investigating in Kano involved billions of public funds diverted by public officials. They are desperate to kill in order to sit on stolen funds. They are as dangerous as drug cartels in Colombia. Fighting them is like fighting drug lords,” he said.

He said corruption cannot be fought effectively when law enforcement agents are compromised by the same corrupt politicians who have no respect for accountability.

The PCACC was established in April 2005 to fight corruption in Kano State.