A Non Governmental Organisation, Aid Foundation has urged Nigerians to be part of the process of holding public officials accountable on public spending
The Executive Director of Aid Foundation stated this at the government and citizens dialogue on service delivery .
The executive Director who was represented by the program Officer, Mrs Chinazo Anthonia Umenwobi stated that the Forum is a platform were citizens interact with government officials, engage stake holders and seek means on how to hold them accountable for services they render.
The dialogue is part of the Upright for Nigeria Campaign which has been holding quarterly to gauge the level of compliance with service providers for the Strengthening Citizens Resistance Against Prevalence of Corruption (SCRAP-C) in Nigeria.
The forum was done in collaboration with the UK AID, ActionAid and other international non-governmental organizations.
She said persons were durinf their last meeting selected from each of the wards in Kaduna state to mainly gather information about corrupt practice at their ward level, resolve conflict between citizens and forward information about corruption to the right agency.
The following persons were present at the town hall meeting ; Mr Ibrahim Ahmed DPO malari division representing the Nigeria Police Force, Mr Galadima Moses for the ICPC, Abubakar Ibrahim for Kaduna Electricity, Mr M.A Jibril for KASTLEA , HOD civil defence corps .
During the interactive session, Mr Umar Sanda Bello ,from Nasarawa complained about how his community is facing insecurity, explaining that the only security personnel on ground are mostly women who can’t do anything to defend them when the community comes under attack.
Mallam Yusuf Mohammed ,spoke and queried how it is that communities will buy transformer for themselves and still pay bill to Kaduna power holding company.
On whistle blowing policy he demanded to know from the ICPC what is the modalities for reporting cases of corruption and why whistle blower sometimes end up been the victim.
Rev Yohannah also spoke about his experience when his wife was kidnapped sometimes ago and when he ran to the police the response wasn’t encouraging but he thanked God that through prayers his wife was rescued
He went further to also condemn estimated billing system.
Reacting to some of the issues , Dpo Ahmed intimated that the Nigeria police force is been under founded and they also lack man power as he said 350,000 police men is not enough to police a population of over 200million Nigerian’s
He solicited for the citizens to add their voices to the debate of community policing as that will help .
Reaction to the issue of Kaduna electricity, Abubakar Ibrahim insisted that they only transmit but don’t generate and as such they can only do little ,about paying a flat rate of #1800 for those without metre he dismissed it saying it is not a law and customers are charged based on their tariff plan ,he also accepted the fact for the need for them to improve and some of the issues raised will be looked into.
Reacting to the issue of corruption reporting , Moses Galadima who represented the ICPC said while they encourage whistle blowing, citizens should be careful not to be found wanting in giving out wrong information as that attracts a jail term of 10 years.
