The Chairman, Board of Directors of the organization, Professor Ben Aigbokhan made the declaration in his welcome address at the meeting of the Monitoring of Assets Through Transparency and Accountability (MANTRA) Project at the Newton Park Hotel, Abuja on July 11, 2018.
He said the MANTRA Project provides ANEEJ and other network partners and members the unique platform to strengthen the work in this area beginning with the independent monitoring of the use of the 322.5 million dollars Abacha loot for the cash transfer program of the Federal Government.
According to Prof. Aigbokhan, ANEEJ’s focus has also been to ensure that those who engage in the range of corrupt activities that enable the looting “of our collective resources are held to account.”
“This is the essential element of our ‘Corruption Must Not Pay’ Campaign that will be pursued as part of this project…at a broader level, the Project goes beyond just the monitoring of this loot to the more sustainable objective of establishing a regime for the transparent and accountable return and utilization of looted assets in Nigeria from both external and domestic sources.
“We must all share the understanding that the continuing debate in the country about the use of the Abacha loot and other domestic and international recoveries will never be resolved fully if there is no established framework to deal with these cases”
The seasoned university don ultimately hit the nail of the MANTRA Project on the head when he averred: “At ANEEJ we believe that irrespective of whether we are CSOs, government actors or whatever grouping, the ultimate objective here is to achieve outcomes that will be for the benefit of Nigeria and Nigerians.
“And we believe that this can best be achieved in an atmosphere of collective action where everyone works together to ensure that looted assets are returned in a transparent manner and used in an accountable manner for the benefit of all. This is the ultimate objective of the MANTRA Project and we hope that we can all work together to achieve it”
The meeting was well attended by more than 100 civil society organizations leaders across the length and breadth of Nigeria, representative from the office of the Open Government Partnership Program of the Nigeria Government and the media.
Also present, was Rev. David Ugolor, the Executive Director of ANEEJ; Leo Atakpu, Deputy Executive Director of ANEEJ, Comrade Igbotako Nowinta (member Board of Directors of ANEEJ).
