Paul Ohia
13 October 2008
Lagos — A chieftain of Progressive Peoples Alliance, Chief Onyekachi Onyekwere has called for a legislation against people who forge allegations against government officials and submit such to anti-corruption agencies or the police just to embarrass them.
Onyekwere was speaking in the aftermath of a recent allegation against Abia State government officials in connection with a series of petitions sent to the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) on large sums of money for estacodes.
He argued that some people are hell bent on grounding governments to a halt by writing spurious reports and sending them to anti-corruption agencies.
He continues: " Then the anti-corruption agencies get curious then the petitioners run to the media to make noise about stolen money backing it up with headlines that do not often reflect the body of the story...that it is mere allegation."
He urged the Abia state House of Assembly to commence a legislation against false whistle blowers just as it has done on the issue of kidnapping, adding that this would allow Governor Theodore Orji of the state to be left alone to work.
In his estimation, the minimum jail sentence for such people should not be less than ten years without an option of fine but said that legislators should know better.
"His detractors are experts in forgery and this can be of great embarrassment to a governor who has dedicated his entire service to the state and has also vowed to uplift it" the former member of the defunct constitutional conference said.
Onyekwere commended the recent decision by the governor to award N5.3 billion contract for the reconstruction of federal roads in Aba and his decision to build a refinery in the state in conjunction with United States' firms.
He said the developments are just tips of the iceberg of the mission of the governor and urged Abia state citizens to pray for him to win at the Appeal Tribunal since it is obvious that they voted en masse for him.
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my take on this, is that, it is the right thing to do. i am an apostle/advocate of passing of FOIB, into law, with a corresponding adequate purnishment for the libel/slander aspect, of blowing the wrong whistle. we should also make it a point of law, to clear any bad impression from the publicity, after the storm. that will ensure that people get their acts togother before they blow the whistle. i am as usual, CAPITAL G.C.