Akintola advocates death penalty for corrupt Nigerians

Written by Taiwo Olanrewaju

Monday, 28 February 2011

CHIEF Adeniyi Akintola (SAN) has said that death sentence should be inserted in the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt and Other Related Practices Commission (ICPC) Acts as penalty for any public officer, contractor, professional or private citizen found guilty of official corruption by a court of competent jurisdiction.

Akintola, who delivered the 2010 Annual Alumni Lecture of the University of Ibadan Alumni Association (UIAA), on Friday, said he had taken pain to study the average Nigerian elite and discovered that, “He has no shame. He doesn’t resign from public office, even in the face of glaring allegations of graft and abuse of office against him. However, he does not want to die. He fears death.”

Speaking on the topic, “Corruption and the Rule of Law, whither Nigeria?”, at the Trenchard Hall of the University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Akintola noted that, “the little stinkers who steal the nation blind” cannot be up to 10,000 in a country of over 140 million people.

“We can afford to lose them. We can afford to do without them. There is enough for everybody’s need in this country but not enough for everybody’s greed. Let us rise up, therefore, to blow the whistle on them. Smoke and fish them out,” he stated.

The legal luminary, therefore, called on Nigerians to join hands together to confront and destroy the stinkers before they destroy “our common wealth and nationhood.”

Akintola, who said these corrupt Nigerians were everywhere — in commerce, industry, politics, civil service, military, legal profession, media, the church, the mosque, and indeed the entire fiber of the society, admitted that though they were few, they were very powerful, adding, however, that they were not as powerful as God and the will of the people.

The Senior Advocate, who is also a human rights activist and a social crusader, said corruption included all illegal and immoral exercise of powers, advantages, and or privileges, while the rule of law, which could serve as a check against the abuse of power was different from the rule by law, which operates in Nigeria and which serves as a mere tool for a government that suppressed in a legalistic fashion.

On the way forward, the legal luminary said there was the need for a synergy and or collaboration between the EFCC and ICPC, the Code of Conduct, the NDLEA, the Customs the Immigration, the tax board at all levels and professional bodies such as the Nigerian Bar Association, the Institute of Chartered Accountants, the Institute of Taxation, the Nigerian Union of Journalists, the Institute of Auditors, the Institute of Estate Surveyors and Valuers and the Institute of Quantity Surveyors, Sociologists and Criminologists in the universities.

That, he said, was necessary to stop political office seekers who are fond of making anticipatory declarations of assets.

The Vice-Chancellor, Professor Isaac Folorunso Adewole, the chairman of the occasion, himself an alumnus, urged all alumni present at the occasion to invest in the Alumni Association and contribute to the development of the University of Ibadan, Ibadan.

http://tribune.com.ng/index.php/news/18146-akintola-advocates-death-penalty-for-corrupt-nigerians

yes - lets see how many will be left, the bench inclusive.

^^^^ I begin to wonder the type of person you are. You must be as corrupt as OBJ, Bode George and Jonathan put together. You've got no shame at all.

^^^^
name calling only strengthens my resolve to disagree with you.

my simple statement above that agrees with Akintola is what got you hot like so? You have a problem.