Buhari Determinedly Corners Corruption Again…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Yoruba proverb says when a reprehensible misdemeanor is left to fester, it will get wiser and escape sanctions. Corruption appears to be getting wiser as much as it is being pursued and may soon develop wings to fly untouchably to wreck more havoc.

And so today, the Federal Government issued an Executive Order No 6 of 2018 to re-tool its arsenal at tackling corruption more effectively and to ensure that justice is not defeated by persons either involved in corruption or in the handling of corruption cases.

In order to preserve suspected proceed of corruption from being dissipated or sold away the Executive order No 6 of 2018 has restricted persons from dealing in suspicious assets that are subject of any investigation or enquiry bordering on corruption.

The order targets at depriving alleged criminals from using the proceed of illicit acts to allure, pervert, or intimidate judicial processes or using the proceed to fight back through organizing, sponsoring or financing acts of terrorism, kidnapping, ethnic or religious violence to the detriment of economic prosperity, justice and welfare of the Nigerian State.

President Muhammadu Buhari reiterated that if Nigeria does not kill corruption, corruption will sooner or later kill Nigeria. He acknowledged that there are more grounds to cover in the war against corruption and promised to firmly go the whole hug to cut off the hands of corruption and deal decisive blow to corruption in the land.

In certain ongoing high-profile corruption cases alone, the amount involved run up to N595.4 billons (about $1.5Billion), the President said.

Meanwhile, the alleged monies involved are about twice 2 years budget for Ministry of Power works and Housing, the highest allocated for a Federal Ministry. This suggests that the money involved in the alleged proceed of corruption would go a long way at fixing Nigeria’s electricity problems with multiplier effects for significantly reducing pervading unemployment in the Country.

In an interview with a lawyer about the legality of the Presidential order no 6 of 2018 especially in our clime of vigilant legal pundits, Barrister ‘Lanre Shittu of Crescent Chambers, Ibadan said the order is within the constitutional power of Mr. President. Also, when prodded further about the issue of purchase of unconfirmed corruption assets since the assets should be presumed free on encumbrance unless otherwise proved, the lawyer replied buyers are expected to exercise due diligence before purchase of any property. He said it is the same due diligence expected of one as in the case of stolen property.

 

By Ess Kay

PublicTimes Nigeria (ISSN: 2250 –9295)

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.