Orikinla:

Acting President Goodluck Jonathan does not have the balls and guts to prosecute the criminals and in fact, he recently appointed one of them as his security adviser.

[size=14pt]Those who want Jonathan to act on the Halliburton scam included elder statesman and a former adviser to ex-President Shehu Shagari on National Assembly Matters in the Second Republic, Tanko Yakassai; then Deputy Senate President, Abubakar Dan-Musa; former Governor of old Kaduna State, Lawan Keita; Uche Onyeagocha, former House of Representative member, retired army colonel, Abubakar Umar; Action Congress (AC) governorship candidate in Imo State in the last election and Conference of Nigerian Political Parties (CNPP) factional leader and founder, Citizens Popular Party (CPP), Maxi Okwu and Publicity Secretary of the AC in Lagos State, Joe Igbokwe.

In the views of Yakassai, if nothing is done about the Halliburton scandal and those indicted are not brought to book, Nigerians would be disappointed.



He said: "It is a shame that the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) and Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), which were set up to fight corruption, have turned to agencies of vendetta even though there was high expectation when they were established. (Former President Olusegun) Obasanjo did it and now it is the turn of (Acting President Goodluck) Jonathan. And looking at the big names revealed in that report, it's only a novice that would believe the government would act because those names are those behind Jonathan.

"He started wrongly by being selective; looking at the way he is chasing (former Delta State Governor James) Ibori around. Can he do the same to those indicted in the Halliburton scam? His selective fight against corruption does not inspire any hope. He is just fighting perceived enemies like Obasanjo did. I really do not think any tangible result would come out of that report."

Keita said that everyone involved in the scandal should be exposed in the interest of the country, because to him it will be a dangerous arrangement to sweep the matter under the carpet no matter who is involved.

"Whoever is named and proven to be involved in the scam should be prosecuted to serve as deterrent to others with such dubious ambition," the former AC chairman Board of Trustees (BOT) said. According to him, it is the right of Nigerians to know the role some of their leaders played in destroying the country's economy.

Umar said the scandalous list is a reflection of the insincerity with which the present administration is fighting corruption.

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