…promises to deal with power sector saboteurs
President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday disclosed that former government officials who looted the nation’s treasury have discreetly been returning such stolen funds. The president made the disclosure in Tehran, the capital of the Islamic Republic of Iran, when he interacted with the Nigerian community.
Buhari was in Tehran where he attended the third meeting of the Gas Exporting Countries’ Forum (GECF). New Telegraph had exclusively reported in August that some senior officials in the Goodluck Jonathan administration returned looted funds to the Buhari government.
Specifically, New Telegraph reported that a close security aide of former President Jonathan had refunded N1.5 billion to the Federal Government; the sum he illegally acquired in office. “The security agency has recovered N1.5 billion from an aide of former President Goodluck Jonathan.
After a series of investigations, the money was traced to his account, which he could not explain the source as a public servant. “The aide is not alone as some others have voluntarily returned money to the Federal Government to avoid prosecution,” a source in the presidential villa had told New Telegraph in August. Buhari had sought the assistance of foreign partners and institutions to help Nigeria in the recovery of over $150 billion stolen funds stashed in foreign banks.
The president’s remark has put to rest several months of insinuations that some prominent government officials, including aides of former President Goodluck Jonathan, may have started returning looted funds for fear of being arrested and investigated. Speaking on Monday with the Nigerian community, Buhari stressed that those accused of corruption would have been prosecuted by now, but for the need to thoroughly investigate them with a view to gathering enough evidences for their eventual trial.
Buhari lamented that given the democratic system and provisions of the rule of law, he was being frustrated in taking swift actions that would arrest and prosecute treasury looters. He said it was easy for him during his tenure as a military Head of State in 1985 to arrest and put alleged corrupt individuals in protective custody for them to prove their innocence, but the dictates of rule of law and due process has slowed him down in prosecuting corruption in this dispensation.
The president said: “On corruption, yes, they are still innocent. But, we are collecting documents and some of them have started voluntarily returning something. But we want all. “When we get those documents, we will formally charge them to court and then we will tell Nigerians to know those who abused trust when they are entrusted with public funds.
So, the day of reckoning is gradually approaching. “We want to have everything back – all that they took by force in 16 years.” The president told the Nigerian community that his government would deal with saboteurs in the nation’s power sector in order to bring back sanity and service delivery in the provision of stable electricity for all Nigerians. According to him, although he is yet to take any direct policy action in the power sector, electricity has greatly improved in the last few months. He noted that his government would ensure that the needful, especially improvement of security, was done to ensure regular power supply.
“I believe if you are in touch with home, you would have been told that already there is some improvement in power. “We haven’t said anything to them yet. I think they only find it sensible or appropriate for them to try and improve the power. “I’m sure you know about the privatisation of the power sector; your old friends, NEPA or Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) have been sold to a number of interest groups. But, the fundamental thing about us is that we remain potential in everything, except performance,” the president explained.
“We have a lot of gas, we have a lot of qualified people. But again, we have a lot of saboteurs who go and blow installations. Those who normally steal Nigerian crude and those who blow up installations, whether they call themselves militants or whatever, they are still there,” he added.
However, Buhari noted that the sabotage and theft of gas were undermining the efforts of the government to increase power supply in the country. He stressed that to tackle the problem, the existing Military Task-Forces will be reorganised to ensure a successful protection of the network of gas pipelines.
“Power is a running battle because the saboteurs are still there. We have the potential. We have gas, we have qualified people, but we are contending with a lot of saboteurs who go and blow up installations. “When gas is pumped to Egbin and such other power stations, thieves and saboteurs such as the militants cut those supplies,” the president said in a statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu. Buhari assured that the military taskforces with representation from the Army, Navy, Air Force, the Police and the secret services will be reconstituted to secure the pipelines.
“Supplies will become steady; there will be less sabotage as we secure the pipelines,” he said. Buhari spoke on the Boko Haram insurgency, which he said his government was also tackling with vigour. He promised that peace would soon return to the troubled North-Eastern states of the country.
The president also assured that deliberate steps were being taken to revamp the nation’s educational system from the primary school to the tertiary levels. He said government would make arrangements to send more Nigerians to Iran on scholarship because of the level of discipline and orderliness of the country.
In his remark, the Nigerian Charge D’Affairs in Iran, Dr. Ali Magashi, told the president that few Nigerians currently in prison in Iran were drug couriers who attempted to smuggle banned substances into the country from Afghanistan. Meanwhile, Buhari has pledged his administration’s readiness to strengthen the capacity of the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC) to enable it actualise its mandate.
“Effort will be made by this government to strengthen the commission in order to mitigate the challenges confronting it towards achieving its core mandate,” Buhari said. The president made the commitment yesterday in Abuja, at a three-day conference organised by the ICPC with the theme: Mobilising the Nigerian Youth against Corruption (NYaC). Buhari, who was represented by the Minister of Youths and Sports, Mr. Solomon Dalong, emphasised the compelling need for Nigerian youths to offer themselves as vehicles for the renewed fight against graft.
He frowned at a situation whereby some youths subject themselves to manipulation by politicians. Earlier, the Chairman of the ICPC, Mr. Ekpo Nta, enjoined the youth to resist corruption, remain vigilant, while offering unflinching support required to tame graft. Nta disclosed that the Commission has since created the National Anti- Corruption Volunteer Corps (NAVC), which offers young people with proven integrity, to expose cases of corruption around them.