"Extend whistleblowing policy to electoral fraud" - Orji Tells FG

Senator Theodore Orji representing Abia Cen­tral district has asked President Muhammadu Buhari to extend the whis­tleblowing policy of his ad­ministration to the country’s electoral system and clean up the endemic corruption in the system.

The former governor who gave the advice during a town hall meeting with his constituents held at the Umuahia North Council headquarters on Sunday said corruption “is not stealing money alone but corruption abounds in different shapes in our polity.”

He decried the high level of corruption endemic in Nigeria’s electoral system and urged the federal gov­ernment to, as a matter of urgency beam its anti-cor­ruption searchlight on the electoral system.

His words: ‘’Whistleblow­ing is a good policy but it should not be limited to information about stolen money alone; snatching of ballot papers is also corrup­tion.

“No corruption can be worse than forging of elec­tion results. Electoral fraud is the worst form of corrup­tion, and I think time has come for whistle blowers to also expose the perpetrators so that the system can be cleaned up,” Orji said.

Orji who used the oppor­tunity to give his score card so far at the senate said he had given a good account of himself in the upper cham­ber despite the fact he was a first-timer.

He said he had so far moved three bills, and spon­sored nine bills one of which already had been passed into an Act awaiting presidential assent while others are at various stages of the process of passage.

Some of the bills include: “A bill for an Act to make provision for freedom from hunger, and the right to ad­equate food of acceptable quality, right of every child to basic nutrition and for connected purposes; Na­tional Emergency bill; a bill for an Act to provide for National Planning process, among others.

The senator also said he had performed well in at­tracting federal projects to the zone.

Orji who said those in search of jobs and financial assistance top the list of visi­tors at his Abuja office prom­ised to keep trying his best to better the lots of his constit­uents using his contacts.