Corrupt politicians who plan to run for offices in the coming elections will be stopped by Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), the anti-graft agency said in Abuja yesterday.

Farida Waziri, the chairman of the commission, stated this while receiving board members of the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) at the EFCC headquarters. She said that the anti-graft agency will prevent corrupt politicians from contesting any public office in 2011. According to her, the anti-graft agency would collaborate with the police, the State Security Service, the Independent National Electoral Commission and the CCB to jointly produce a security report on every candidate that shows interests in the elections. “Based on their security reports, they will be stopped at the right time,” she said. “There is no way that we will allow the political parties to field corrupt people. Legally, we are empowered to look into some of these issues.”

Mrs Waziri also said that the EFCC will use ongoing investigations to prevent indicted officials from running for office. “How do we allow these people to come back and say that they are going to lead us? The world will laugh at us,” she said. “We see that some of them are already printing posters and I will see how they are going to work that out. We are not going to allow that. We want to ensure that only the proper persons will represent us.”

Past offenders to be tried

The Chairman of the board of the CCB, Sam Saba, said that former ministers who failed to properly declare their assets will be facing a tribunal soon. “Some past ministers did not declare their assets,” he said. “Their names have been compiled and we’ve sent the names to the Federal Ministry of Justice because we have to get their approval before inviting them to face the tribunal.” Mrs Waziri also noted that some corrupt persons, who have intentions to loot public funds, deliberately declare more assets than they have, and urged the CCB to properly investigate all declared assets. “Some with intentions to steal put fake items in the forms,” she said. “Some claim that they have houses in the US, UK.”

Responding, Mr Saba said that his team had settled down to work adding that the CCB has already noted that most public officials, especially the legislators, keep foreign accounts which they have not declared to the bureau.

http://234next.com/csp/cms/sites/Next/News/Metro/Politics/5611715-147/efcc_to_bar_corrupt_politicians_from.csp

Ummmm. . . . yeah, looks to me like that'll be 99.99% of the whole Nation!


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3AmCcEjmHk&feature=related

when she herself is corrupt too.

Nigeria's constitution does not allow EFCC to stop anyone from contesting. Only the courts can do that.
So, unless Waziri is able to secure a conviction against anyone before the political parties nominate candidates, she is just playing to the gallery. I bet she is fully aware of this but just wants to hug the headlines.

They can still use it to prevent some from contesting. When you have questions to answer , INEC may not clear you.

I hope they stop IBB first before i believe what they are saying.

na sankara story o jare

In politics no one is innocent ,  Even if my father was a politician i would not vouch for him . because obviously no one just upped and attained his/her position, they were all put there so they all have to satisfy all their background cockroaches .

This is a lost cause ,  We just need some one that is insane to make sanity out of our government . I pray Lord send us the Revolution. Wipe out all these thieves we have as leaders ,

Edwin ,

This is another sensational story, trying to play to the gallery as EFCC is fond of doing.

The courts have shown in 2003, using the Atiku case, to clearly state that EFCC does NOT have the power to prevent/declare anyone unfit from political office without a court declaration. This is another plan to do an [i]"Atiku" [/i]on someone that is running against the President. I'm not surprised sha, as OBJ is one of the government advisers.

Story

agabaI23:

Story

You mean "Story, Story, Stoooory!!!!!"

Why should EFCC wait till election before picking corrupt politicians. If any politician of corrupt, he should have already been in jail and not leaving them to move free but now preventing them from contesting. The law doesn't say that corrupt poeple should be allowed roam about be prevented from contesting in elections.

I'm tired of Nigerian "Talk Talk, no Action" attitude. These days when I see such headlines as this, I just hiss and go to the next one. Nigeria is one of the "weirdly strange" countries I know on earth.

femi4love:

I'm tired of Nigerian "Talk Talk, no Action" attitude. These days when I see such headlines as this, I just hiss and go to the next one. Nigeria is one of the "weirdly strange" countries I know on earth.

Haba, they do act now, just to the wrong direction

Nobody would qualify then . . including the EFCC.

Words without action,what has she done to the corrupt politicians, despite the allegations of corruption in the national assembly no step has been taken, she just like talking.

With this , two things come into my mind;
1 This may be another Waziri's gimmicks of hugging the headlines to remain relevant.
2 This may be a political move to bulldoze perceived political opponents of Jonathan in the next election. My question is, if she knows these corrupt politicians, what is stopping her from getting them prosecuted?

WoW, EFCC at it again, whats with innocent until proven guilty theory?  now madam Waziri is the prosecutor and the judge the same time,, i dont support any corrupt politician and wish they wld all be dumped inside Kirikiri but damn,, a competent law court should do that,, i tire oo, where do all these guys get their law degrees from?

, you silly mumu madam EFCC!
we heard exactly this last elections

and you are repeating it again,

u are not any better than them!
lets see you stop IBB!
whether no be your dead body them go pik for gutter the next day,

all you bunch of corrupt idiots, pointing finger at one and the rest four are pointing back at you

MAdam Farida go siddon!!!

If they are corrupt, why not charge them to court and win a conviction? Prisoners can't contest.

Election witch hunting 07 reloaded AND BROUGHT TO YOU BY JONATHAN AND LOOTING COUNCIL INC!!!

Seun:

If they are corrupt, why not charge them to court and win a conviction? Prisoners can't contest.

Are you a stranger to how long court cases drag in this country? Sorry to say this, it is people like me and you that see these men as criminals, EFCC don't always see them as such, being equally corrupt-ridden.

Is this Jonathan's way of stopping IBB from contesting?

EFCC' definition of corrupt politician is anyone that has chopped 10 billion Naira or more

We'll see!

Who knows
corrupt politicians?

I'm of the opinion they should tell us another story

safariman:

EFCC' definition of corrupt politician is anyone that has chopped 10 billion Naira or more

I think that definition will evolve to annyone running for elections against the will of Jonathan.