A human rights activist in Nigeria, Comrade Adeniyi, Alimi Sulaiman
has faulted the appointment of Professor Itse Sagay (SAN) as Chairman,
Presidential Advisory Committee on Anti-Corruption , by President
Muhammadu Buhari, alleging that Sagay was one of the corrupt Legal
Practitioners in Nigeria which it would difficult for him to give
good advice to the federal government on how to stamp out the menace
of corruption in the land.
Rights activist warned President Buhari against appointing All
Progressives Congress (APC) apologists into the strategist position of
this nature, if positive results were needed to move the country
forward, particularly, in the area of fighting corruption that has
eaten deep into the fabrics of the Nigeria system, noting that Sagay
was the representatives of the most corrupt personalities and elements
in ruling party(APC),so this development would erode the credibility
and integrity of the committee before the public.
In a statement issued and signed by Comrade Sulaiman, who is the
Chairman, Civil Societies Coalition for the Emancipation of Osun
State(CSCEO), against the purported appointment of Professor Itse
Sagay as Chairman, Presidential Advisory Committee on Anti-Corruption,
which a copy was made available to newsmen yesterday in Osogbo, the
State capital, suggested either Justice Muhammadu Lawal Uwais or
Justice Mustapha Akanbi to head the Committee, saying Nigerians could
vouch for the integrity of this two erudite jurists.
He noted that if Buhari led-Federal Government ready to fight the
menace of corruption in Nigeria, the person to be head such Committee
must be man of conscience with sense of justice, honesty, integrity,
uprightness, courage and a believer in due process to determine a
decision and Professor Sagay lacks all these qualities which it might
erode the committee the needed credibility.
According to him, Mr. President should look deeply at the characters
of those to be appointed as anything in Nigeria under his government ,
because most of their positions on national issues were in their lips
not in their mind, just to get name, like Sagay who made the judicial
system to be docile and has never conscientiously advocated for a
meaningful change from the corrosive ,decadent and debilitating legal
system that Nigeria had since all this while and the reason for this
was simple, because Sagay was one of the foremost legal practitioners
that concerned with lining their pockets with fat and fertile briefs
with no time for them to conceptualize and intellectualize the
direction of the legal system.
Sulaiman stated that: “how President Muhammadu Buhari will appoint
Professor Itse Sagay as Chairman, Presidential Advisory Committee on
anti-Corruption, that took huge amount of money to issue a “Press
Statement” recently in favour of Osun State governor, Mr Rauf Adesoji
Aregbesola and not seeing anything wrong in corrupt level of
Aregbesola’s government, particularly, the criminal increment of the
workers wage bill from N1.3 billion to N3.6billion,when no fewer than
five thousand workers(5,000) voluntarily retired from service of the
State in 2012 and nothing wrong in the eyes of acclaimed legal
luminary(Itse Sagay) as Mr. Rauf Aregbesola was running the State as
if the Federal Government did not give the State and Local government
areas their monthly allocation from Federation Account, as well plunge
the State into debt regime .
“We are using this medium to challenge Professor Itse Sagay, SAN, to
come out and explained his role in present Osun State crisis before
he can be the Chairman, Anti-Corruption Presidential Advisory
Committee, if people will trust his advice to President Muhammadu
Buhari on anti-corruption .Sagay is one of the corrupt legal
practitioners in Nigeria, even in human rights community which never
accepted “probono cases” without collecting something, unlike late
Fiery Lagos Lawyers, Chief Gani Fawehinmi, Senior Advocate of
Nigeria(SAN) and Barrister Bamidele Atturu.
Sulaiman then reiterated the commitment of the Coalition in
supporting of the genuine fight against menace of corruption in the
country but not selective fighting of corruption as being tailored
towards by the present administration, urging President Buhari to
rescind his decision in appointing Professor Sagay as Chairman,
Presidential Advisory Committee on Anti-Corruption because of the
posterity of the Committee.