MURIC Worries Over Fresh $5.7 Million Arms Deal; Demands For UN Probe

Posted by African Examiner Latest Headlines, National News, News Tuesday, October 7th, 2014

By Niyi Adeyi

The Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) has again expressed shock on the fresh – second within three weeks, the sum of $5.7 Million, belonging to the Federal government and seized by the South African Asset Forfeiture Unit of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA).

The group in a statement issued by its Director, Professor Ishaq Akintola, exploded it was “greatly perturbed” by the festival of international embarrassments as a result of “clandestine misadventures of the Nigerian government”, lamenting that with the latest international misconduct, it has been proved right and was convinced the government would have been engaging in sleazy activities, while “strongly suspect that billions of dollars have been siphoned outside” the country.

MURIC Director, Professor Ishaq Akintola

“It Cannot Be South Africa Alone. Fortunes must have been illegally shipped To Eastern Europe, Switzerland And South America. Israel must also have been seen as a safe haven by the kleptomaniacs in government” MURIC stressed.

The orgnaization was however pessimsitic of any desirable result from calling for investigation of yet another sharp practice by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC) as they could not obviously investigate their employer – President Jonathan, who it accused, “institutionalized corruption” when on 5th May, 2014 described “70 per cent of corruption cases” in Nigeria as “common stealing”.

MURIC alleged the offensive statement was meant for Nigeria’s anti-graft agencies, noting that the top echelons of the Federal Government appeared to possess the noun ‘thief’ and the verb ‘to steal’.

The statement observed that apart from the corruption angle, it recalled the involvement of the President of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) in one of the deals was still a curious development, adding it “evolved a conspiracy theory capable of igniting tension between Christians and Muslims”.

The group therefore called on The National Assembly not to desert the electorates at this crucial hour.

“Our legislators must ask probing questions on our behalf. There must be no sacred cows. Enough is enough”, it insisted.

In the meantime, MURIC appealed to the international community not to leave Nigeria alone in these trying times, calling on other countries through which Nigerian money has been ferried to speak up, as well as demanding the United Nations (UN) to institute an international investigation into the established cases of money-laundering and illegal arms deals.