The Save Humanity Advocacy Centre, a human rights group, has given the Transparency International a 72 hours ultimatum to vacate Nigeria. The ultimatum comes after the Transparency International group reported that former Nigerian military chiefs stole as much as $15 billion through fraudulent arms procurement deals.
The report jointly released by the Executive Director of CISLAC, Auwal Musa Rafsanjani and a Senior Legal Researcher at TI, Eva Marie Anderson, stated that corruption in the defence sector had weakened Nigerian counter-terrorism capacity and strengthened Boko Haram terrorists.
In reaction to the report which was described by the Save Humanity Advocacy Centre, SHAC, as containing “more of recycled history than groundbreaking research”, the group gave the ultimatum for the Transparency International group to vacate the country.
The statement released by the Executive Director, SHAC, Comrade Ibrahim Abubakar reads: “We have taken our time to look at the claims in the said report and our conclusion is that it contained more of recycled history than groundbreaking research that Nigerians are yearning for to take the ongoing anti-corruption efforts of President Muhammadu Buhari to the next level.
“It is however disappointing that the report is rich in allegations and short on actionable revelations that could help to further plug loopholes in the system.
“The report therefore has all the elements of a contract awarded in pursuit of an agenda which is already well known to many Nigerians going by our experience with Amnesty International and those promoting falsehood in high places.
“It wasted a lot of its focus on cases and incidents that the President Buhari led Federal Government has dealt with or that happened too long ago to have been brought up in the context Transparency International did.
“The defence sectors of other countries regularly deal with issues that are not too different from what the Nigerian Armed Forces have had to contend with and at no time has Transparency International sought to make them the object of international ridicule once they being implementing actions to prevent recurrence.
“It is therefore appalling that the massive reforms that have been introduced in Nigeria’s defence sector was not taken into consideration when the report was written rather they decided to present the past ugly trend under past administration, which is considered as a gross injustice to the current set of actors in the defence architecture of our country who make daily sacrifices to see to our peace and wellbeing as a nation.
“We therefore condemn the Transparency International’s report in its entirety as an attempt to blackmail the Nigerian Armed Forces and the Federal Government into allowing terrorists to freely roam the Nigeria. For Transparency International to constitute itself into a sanction imposing entity that can block arms sales and place travel ban, as far as we are concerned, is a plot to decimate Nigeria’s population to allow dark influences inherit the land and its resources. No right thinking nation will accept such wicked evil and we reject it on behalf of all Nigerians.
“In the interest of the preservation of Nigeria, we are giving Transparency International 72 hours to leave Nigeria.
“We, by the same measure call on the Foreign Affairs Ministry and the Ministry of Interior to act fast in expelling the saboteurs at the organization from Nigeria within the stated time failing which we shall bear no responsibility for the mass civil disobedience from Nigerians who are being mobilized across the country.
“Transparency International shall receive a stiffer treatment than its co-saboteur, Amnesty International received at the hands of Nigerian protesters in the past. This ultimatum is to Transparency International and all its local collaborators in the agenda to destroy the Nigeria’s image both at home and abroad for their selfish interest.
“As the common street lingo will put it, “our mumu don do”, we have had enough of foreign occupiers that come here to lord it over Nigerians as if they represent God. The wickedness of Transparency International, while meant to particularly to dent the image of the current administration and its efforts in the war against insurgency, the plot will make life difficult for Nigerians given the humanitarian crisis that terrorism has caused in our country.”