ANEEJ Condemns Attack on Anti-Corruption Crusader, Olarenwaju Suraj
*Calls for thorough investigation
BENIN CITY, NIGERIA. April 1, 2022… The Africa Network for Environment and Economic Justice (ANEEJ) has condemned the attack on the family of anti-corruption Crusader and Chairman, Human and Environmental Development Agenda (HEDA) Resource Centre, calling for thorough investigation into the ugly incident.
Executive Director of ANEEJ and foremost anti-corruption activist, Rev David Ugolor in a statement issued in Benin City, wondered why Olarenwaju Suraj could be singled out in an estate of over 220 apartments for such an attack.
“Everybody knows that the Human and Environmental Development Agenda (HEDA) Resource Centre, established in 2001, is a Nigerian nonprofit organization which has been promoting accountability, responses to climate change and food security, and other issues through policy advocacy, training, and research. There is no basis for the attack on the founder of this organization and his family at such an odd hour of the night.” Rev Ugolor said.
“It is, however, more worrisome that the attack is coming weeks after Mr. Suraju’s arraignment by the federal government for alleged cyberstalking of a former Attorney-General of the Federation, necessitating our call on the Inspector General of Police to thoroughly investigate his attack and bring the master minds to justice,” Ugolor demanded.
The ANEEJ statement wondered why “aside attacking Mr. Suraju and the wife, the armed men carted away valuable items of the family and went ahead to force Mr Suraju to provide all his security details including phone passwords, bank log-in details, laptops passwords, among others, which makes the attack highly suspicious of a deliberate move to silence an anti-corruption crusader.
Rev Ugolor urged his colleague in the struggle not to be deterred by the incident in his quest to fight corruption in the country, noting that Nigeria needs to be rid of all corrupt practices for the nation to develop.
“We must continue the struggle my brother. We cannot be cowed by any power to end our anti-corruption stance. Nigeria must be freed of corruption for it to grow and I know that posterity will always remember your personal contributions and sacrifices for our fatherland,” Ugolor said.
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