JOBLESS DRIVER, STUDENT, PETTY CONTRACTOR WIN NATIONAL AWARDS AS CORRUPTION TORI MARKS WORLD ANTI-CORRUPTION DAY

As the world marked the United Nations Anti-Corruption Day, Corruption Tori, a television anti-corruption programe produced by Signature TV and supported by MacArthur Foundation has rewarded three Nigerians for their acts of anti-corruption.

For three months, the pidgin English anti-corruption television programe, corruption tori called for nominations of ordinary Nigerians across the country who have done extraordinary acts of integrity for national awards.

At a town hall meeting to mark the 2022 world anti-corruption day in Abuja on Friday, three ordinary Nigerians, a jobless driver, a petty contractor, and a student emerged winners.

The winners honored at the event were Paul Isicheilim Eugene, a taxi driver in Abuja who is nicknamed “Oga find and return amongst his colleagues and those who have benefited from his act of integrity, Paul returns every cash, personal item or luggages of customers forgotten in his taxi including the security phone of a military officer who forgot the phone in his vehicle. Paul rejected an offer of one hundred thousand naira from the military officer and said that his honesty was not for sale.

Another award winner was Chidinma Chukwueke, a student of Federal Polytechnic Nekede who was honored on the account of her campaign against offering money, her body, or any inducement for grades in school and also her refusal to offer a bribe in order to get registered in the just concluded INEC voter registration.

The third award recipient who is a local contractor, John Ishaleku from Lafia in Nassarawa sealed the pipe through which corruption steals from public funds. He insisted that he would not inflate the contract price even when the temptation to do so came from the Son of a commissioner.

 In the last four years, Corruption Tori has encountered corruption in its worst and destructive manner but there are also few ordinary Nigerians like the three award winners that have shown that corruption cannot overwhelm Nigeria. These Nigerians have resisted corruption even when the temptation from poverty and low social standing were enough reasons to act corruptly.