The Federal Government says the serial negative outcome of corruption cases recorded at the high courts will not dampen the anti-graft battle.
In a statement issued in Abuja on Tuesday, the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, urged Nigerians not to be discouraged by the setbacks in the war against corruption.
Mohammed said government had appealed against all the negative decisions, and would vigorously canvass its case at the level of the Court of Appeal.
The minister disclosed that all the judgments were being rigorously reviewed “to determine whether there were errors on our part or whether the government is the victim of mischief”.
Mohammed said: “The war against corruption is going to be long, tough and arduous, but this administration is equipped, physically, mentally and intellectually, for the long haul.
“We must win this war because the law is on our side, the people are on our side and God is on our side. This is only the beginning. So, any setback will not deter or discourage us.”
Mohammed appealed to Nigerians to continue to identify with the “titanic struggle. This is not Buhari’s war, it is Nigeria’s war of liberation from poverty, misery, sickness and wretchedness.”
The minister noted that Nigeria could not afford unnecessary technicalities as far as the war against corruption was concerned because of its adverse and devastating consequences on the polity.
He said: “Nigerians will appreciate more the grave and dire consequences of corruption when they consider that the 9.2 million dollars found in a village house in Southern Kaduna can finance the construction of one health centre in each of the 774 local governments in Nigeria and fund them for one year.
“Against this background, one can therefore imagine what Nigeria could have achieved with the 20 billion dollars that was estimated to have been looted in the last three years of the immediate past administration, either in the areas of job creation or infrastructure development.
“The government is therefore more determined than ever to recover as much of this plundered funds as possible and use them to put our youths back to work and fix our roads and other infrastructure.”
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