Saturday, July 6, 2013

EU Supports Nigeria With N70 Billion to Fight Corruption

The European Union (EU) has offered the sum of N70 billion to support Nigeria's war against corruption and promote good governance.
Head of European Union's delegation to Nigeria and ECOWAS, Ambassador David Macrae, who stated this yesterday in Abuja during the 2nd annual seminar on "The role of Public Complaints Commission (PCC) in a democratic Nigeria," organised by the Public Complaint Commission, also said that 99.9 per cent of Nigerians lacked access to justice.
In his remark on "Deepening human rights records in Nigeria as a benchmark for good governance: the EU's expectations," the EU ambassador disclosed that another N60 billion has been committed to help reforms to enable the nation's judiciary function well.
He mentioned that an independent and functional judiciary was essential to good governance because some people should not be allowed to benefit from impunity.
On corruption, the ambassador said that the EU has put N70 billion on the table to support Nigeria's fight against corruption and promote good governance.
He spoke against capital punishment and death penalty canvassed by President Jonathan thus: "EU's stand is that we value life, we don't agree that people should be put to death, since it is on the statute book, this makes it difficult, we will continue to encourage the reform of the law (death penalty) until it is no longer the case."
Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State, in his keynote address justified why he recently signed the death warrant of some condemned prison inmates in the state explaining that the two prisoners who were executed robbed raped and dismembered their victims.
He stressed that he did not sign the death warrant because President Goodluck Jonathan said so.
Oshiomhole noted that, "I am concerned about death as a Catholic and I am fanatical about the sanctity of human life. However, as governor, I subscribed to oath that I shall obey the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria not resolution of the EU."

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