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Given the plethora of probes going on at the National Assembly, the Senate President, Senator David Mark has said that the federal legislature will encourage President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua to set up a Judicial Commission of enquiry to expose culprits of corruption in the last administration.

Senator Mark, who stated this yesterday when he received the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) delegation, said that the most difficult war against corruption remains the ability to expose corrupt officials adding that contrary to some insinuations in certain quarters, the National Assembly probes are not in any way diversionary.

The president of the Senate who was represented by the Senate Committee Chairman on Labour, Senator Wilson Ake expressed delight that the National Assembly has already commenced the process of exposing the corrupt, no matter how powerful they were and still are.

“This thing has been there over the years and it has been difficult to tackle them; and you must first expose them; you have to weaken the institution of corruption by exposing those involved. If you don’t expose, even the EFCC finds it difficult to work. Now that it’s a public issue, the security agents have the confidence to go in. I don’t agree that it’s diversionary,” he stated.

Senator Mark therefore assured that the National Assembly would give support to such demands for investigations, adding that having seen the monumental level of corruption in some of the sectors, it would only be appropriate to set up a judicial panel of inquiry.

“It is our duty to ensure that what we are doing doesn’t just end or die in the National Assembly. For it to be meaningful, it should be carried to its logical conclusion and it is the Judiciary that would eventually see to that” Senator Mark said.

Earlier, President of the Nigeria Labour Congress, Comrade Abdulwaheed Omar urged the Federal Government to set up a judicial commission of enquiry to investigate allegations of corruption against all those who served in the immediate past administration.

In a letter delivered during an “anti-corruption protest,” the NLC National President Comrade Omar said that far reaching measures needed to be taken to arrest the spate of corruption in the country.

The NLC president noted that the National Assembly has already indicated its readiness to encourage the executive arm of government to set up the Commission of Inquiry to deal with all persons alleged to have engaged in embezzlement and plundering of the nation’s treasury at all levels during the eight years of former President Olusegun Obasanjo.

The NLC document is entitled “Demand for a Judicial Commission of Inquiry to tackle Corruption”, and the Nigeria Central Labour Body commended the on-going investigations being conducted by the National Assembly on the activities of the past administration.