We have Zero tolerance for corruption in Cross River – Justice Commissioner

The Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Cross River State, Barrister Tanko Ashang, on Monday, warned that the state has zero-tolerance for any form of corruption.

Ashang while speaking at a three-day monitoring and evaluation capacity-building workshop for Anti-Corruption Agencies (ACAs) organised by the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD) in Calabar, Cross River State said the state is taking measures to ensure a clampdown on sharp practices across every sector of the state’s economy.

The training was organised by the CDD in partnership with the Technical Unit on Governance and Anti-corruption Reform (TUGAR) and with support from the MacArthur Foundation.

Carried out by the Human and Environmental Development Agency (HEDA), the CDD with TUGAR trained 31 officials from 12 ACAs including, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC); Independent Corrupt Practices And Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC); Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption (PACAC), Nigeria Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU), The Presidential Initiative on Continuous Audit (PICA); Bureau of Public Service Reforms (BPSR); Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI); Public Complaints Commission (PCC); Special Control Unit Against Money Laundering(SCUML) and Ministry of Justice, FCT.

Continuing Ashang said: “On behalf of my ministry, I would like to let you know that the Ministry of Justice and Cross River State has zero-tolerance for corruption.”

The commissioner also encouraged the participants and the general public to keep up with the good work of fighting corruption in Nigeria.

In a welcome address on behalf of Idayat Hassan, CDD’s Director, Emmanuel Akomaye, the Centre’s project consultant on anti-corruption said M&E is a process that helps determine progress in the fight against corruption in Nigeria.

Akomaye said the CDD believes it is important to bring all the ACAs together for this capacity building workshop to have a balance within institutions, among the citizens, and the international anti-corruption environment, achieve proper evaluation in the fight against corruption and have a good record of the progress made in the fight against corruption in Nigeria.

In her address, the Director of TUGAR, Lilian Ekeanyanwu, commended the CDD for leading the initiative to organise the M&E capacity-building workshop for ACAs.

Ekeanyanwu said the M&E training would address the gaps in the reportage of efforts made by various anti-corruption agencies in the country.

She encouraged the ACAs to always link their activities and work to the National Anti-Corruption Strategy (NACS) with the hope to guarantee that the objectives of ridding Nigeria of corruption are achieved.

Also speaking, Atinuke Odukoya, an M&E expert with HEDA said in the fight against corruption, M&E is vital to addressing two major issues.

Listing the major issues, Odukoya said the first is transparency, through which visibility is given to anti-corruption efforts made by the ACAs while the second is on accountability, as every citizen deserves concrete reporting and knowledge of the ongoing fight against corruption.