President Muhammadu Buhari in his latest statement has restated his commitment to fighting corruption while also revealing that there has been monumental corruption in the system for years now especially from the last administration which was headed by former President Good luck Jonathan under the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
The President claim that the total amount on corruption-related cases currently ongoing involving some influential Nigerians both home and abroad amount to about N595billion Naira which is almost twice the budget of the Ministry of Power, Housing and Works, budgeted for roads put at 344billion.
The President who has been accused of being ‘one-sided’ in terms of his fight against corruption by opposition parties, as they felt that most of the President’s party members in the All Progressives Congress allegedly charged with corruption-related offences or perceived to be corrupt are still moving freely with no arrest or charges brought against them just like the treatment being melted out to other opposition members.
In all their arguments, examples usually cited by the opposition parties are the cases involving the former Secretary to the Government of the Federation Babachir Lawal on grass cutting allegation and former Director General of National Intelligence Agency (NIA) Mr Oke over alleged $45million found in an apartment in Ikoyi Lagos, and nothing so far have been heard about it, after the Vice President Osinbajo’s in-house investigation and report submitted.
President Buhari who seems to have been listening to all of these, in his statement, said his administration is now set to retool and not only fight the menace but to make sure the cases in court are brought to a speedy conclusion with justice served. He said.
“It has become necessary to re-tool our arsenal to be able to more effectively tackle corruption in Nigeria, & ensure that justice is not defeated/compromised by persons involved in corruption. It‘s in consequence of this that I have decided to issue Executive Order No 6 of 2018.
Executive Order No. 6 of 2018 will restrict dealings in suspicious assets that are subject to investigation or inquiry bordering on corruption, in order to preserve such assets from dissipation.
It will deprive alleged criminals of the proceeds of their illicit activities which can otherwise be employed to allure, pervert and/or intimidate the investigative and judicial processes for acts of terrorism, financing of terrorism, kidnapping, sponsorship of ethnic or religious violence, economic sabotage & cases of economic and financial crimes, including acts contributing to the economic adversity of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and against the overall interest of justice and the welfare of the Nigerian State.
This is a good time, after three years in office, to review our achievements, and where necessary, re-appraise our anti-corruption strategy. Like I have said many times before, if Nigeria does not kill corruption, corruption will sooner or later kill Nigeria.
As a government, we recognise that there are more grounds to cover in the war against corruption, and we are prepared to go all out and cut off any means that facilitate corruption and support its growth, while also strengthening our policies and institutions.
To put things in perspective, the total amount involved in some ongoing prosecutions of high-profile corruption-related cases, from available records, is N595.4 billion. Compare this with the highest appropriation in the 2018 Budget, which is N344bn, going to Federal Ministry of Power, Housing and Works for roads.”