The Senator-elect from Rivers East Senatorial District, Andrew Uchendu, believes the delay in the process of funds repatriation is part of corruption.
In his address when he appeared on Politics Today on Tuesday, Uchendu said countries that have refused to speed up the repatriation process of looted funds are doing so in their interest.
“As for the foreign countries, they know that they want to serve their interest more and, therefore, can go ahead to delay repatriation which is an aspect of corruption,” he said.
“There is what I may call the desire to make a better use of the forces that are in your custody. Possibly if we find ourselves in the position of other countries, we will want to delay as much as possible.”
The Senator-elect called on the Federal Government to be mindful of countries it signs bilateral agreements with in it resolve to tackle corrupt practices in Nigeria.
He noted that delaying looted funds was unacceptable, adding that some countries were trading with the monies kept with them by corrupt Nigerians.
“Time is also the value of money, as long as you keep funds with you, you are making more money. You delay in order to make more money so that finally if the provision of the bilateral agreement is being enforced, you can now be sure that you have made some extra monies.
“What you will be repatriating will be the fixed amount that was initially deposited, nobody will be talking about the interest on it and so I believe that these are the politics in repatriation and Nigeria should find ways of getting around it.
“When you lay down procedures of how things should go and when you go outside the provisions of the law, then you are corrupting the system. This is one aspect that we should watch out in future bilateral agreements which the government enters into,” he said.
On the call to extradite former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs Diezani Alison-Madueke, Uchendu said, “Beyond the provisions of the law, I personally think that it is important that Nigerians continue to protest on the highway.”
He noted that the protest would send a signal to public office holders that corruption which he said has become a culture in Nigeria was no longer acceptable.
“People should go ahead so that those who are in offices today, those who we have elected, those who are appointed into public offices would know that it is no longer acceptable for them to abuse the positions of trust given to them by Nigerians,” he said.
“To that extent, I think street procession and protest must continue.”
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