London Anti-Corruption Summit: Nigerian Lawmakers Must Support Anti-Corruption Stand of Buhari -Wole Arisekola

As Lawmakers Urged To Recommend Death Penalty For Treasury Looter

President Muhammadu Buhari who is billed for London next week to attend the 63-led heads of government Anti-Corruption Summit needs at first the unwaivering support of the Nigerian lawmakers to help dismantle the haven of corruption proceeds by recommending death penalty for treasury looters.

  The International Anti-Corruption conference is scheduled to take place at Commonwealth office in central London on Wednesday May 11th and the Summit on Thursday 12th, 2016.

This call was contained in a statement issued by the chairman, Association of Online Media Practitioners, Wole Arisekola. Arisekola's call over the weekend was based on the recommendation of death penalty for kidnappers by Nigerian Senate and therefore, urging the lawmakers to take a step further and recommend same punishment for treasury looters.

NUJ Europe now brings you the Live stream of the event on this page as shown below:

Ahead of the summit's opening, President Buhari will deliver a keynote address titled "Why We Must Tackle Corruption Together" at a pre-summit conference of development partners, the Commonwealth Enterprise and Investment Council, Transparency International and other civil society groups on Wednesday.

President Muhammadu Buhari with the delagation is expected to arrive London on Tuesday May 10 and return to Abuja on Friday May 13, 2016.

Lashley Oladigbolu, Acting President of NUJ Europe Chapter and accredited Journalist of the World Bank Online Briefing Centre, writes from London.

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Wole Arisekola, The Streejournal investigative media practitioner

He noted that while the recommendation made few days ago by the senators prescribing death penalty for kidnappers was laudable, the lawmakers should go a step further by also recommending same punishment for public officials who loot the treasury.

In an interview over the weekend Mr Arisekola, the Dubliner publisher of investigative journal The StreetJournal magazine said President Buhari would succeed in the fight against corruption with collective support of the Nigerians and the lawmakers provided a deterrent capital punishment in the form of death penalty bill for treasury looter Is promulgated into law.

Arisekola, in the earlier statement noted that “the same law should be passed on corrupt public officials because corruption is worse than kidnapping”, noting that “kidnappers cannot kidnap the whole nation but corruption kills the entire nation”.

He stressed further that “corruption is the bane of our underdevelopment, it is the reason behind all the social ills including kidnapping. It is the reason why there are no drugs in hospitals, why our roads are in deplorable conditions, the educational sector is in comatose and why the whole nation is still in darkness.”

It stated further that “One must however, commend the senators for rising to the occasion by recommending death penalty for kidnappers who are making the country unsafe for all,  it is also patient that we should tackle the foundation of crime in our society before we deal with criminals”.

He expressed firm optimism that “this proposal, I belief, if considered and passed by the lawmakers, will act as a deterrent to whoever might be nursing any idea of defrauding this great nation of ours now or in the future”.