President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday declared that the prosecution of persons who have stolen national resources will begin in a matter of weeks.He made the declaration while speaking at a meeting with members of the National Peace Committee led by Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar in the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
Buhari, according to a statement issued by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, said that his administration is irrevocably committed to doing all within its powers to break the vicious cycle of corruption, unemployment and insecurity in Nigeria.
“Nigeria has to break this vicious cycle before we can make progress,” the President said, adding that his administration is diligently getting facts and figures pertaining to the nation’s stolen funds, before proceeding to the prosecution of identified culprits.
He told Gen. Abdulsalami and members of his committee that the Federal Government, under his leadership, will not only ask for the return of stolen funds that have been stashed in foreign banks, but will also ensure that those who stole the funds are put on trial in Nigeria.
The President also said that as part of his administration’s determination to address the national problems it inherited, it is reorganising Nigeria’s revenue generating institutions.
Buhari explained that a single treasury account had been established for all Federal revenue to ensure greater probity, transparency and accountability in the collection, disbursement and utilisation of national funds.
He said: “We have really degenerated as a country. Our national institutions, including the military, which did wonderfully on foreign missions in the past, had been compromised. But we are doing something about it. The military is now retraining and morale has been resuscitated.
“As Petroleum Minister under Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo in the 1970s, I could not travel abroad until I had taken a memo to the Federal Executive Council asking for estacode. Now, everybody does what he wants.
“That is why security-wise and economically, we’re in trouble.”
President Buhari said those that had stolen the national wealth “will be in court in a matter of weeks and Nigerians will know those that had short-changed them.”
Abubakar and members of his committee urged the Federal Government to be guided by rule of law in its fight against corruption.
