Name, shame looters of public funds, CACOL tells Buhari

Stealing is a crime against the state and should not be covered up, it does not augur well for the President not to name the looters of the country’s commonwealth………the government needed to be more transparent and accountable about recovered loots and the looters’ identities as the refusal to name the looters would amount to covering up or providing protection for corruption criminals. And this will encourage corrupt persons to remain recalcitrant in the act….

The President Mohammadu Buhari-led administration on Saturday 3 June, 2016 released the figures of funds and assets recovered from the looters of the country’s resources without revealing the names of the people that are involved in the crime as requested by many Nigerians.

In an unambiguous interview as if to counter the refusal to name the looters, the Chairman of Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption, Prof. Itse Sagay said that there was no legal impediment in shaming the alleged thieves adding that not naming the looters was more of a political decision than a legal one.

The Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders, CACOL, reacting through its Executive Chairman, Debo Adeniran in an interview said “stealing is a crime against the state and should not be covered up, it does not augur well for the President not to name the looters of the country’s commonwealth. He further stressed that the government needed to be more transparent and accountable about recovered loots and the looters’ identities as the refusal to name the looters would amount to covering up or providing protection for corruption criminals. And this will encourage corrupt persons to remain recalcitrant in the act.”

President Buhari

Adeniran explained that those who returned their loots did not do it out of their own freewill but because the authority was closing-in on them, so they must be penalized accordingly. He said “for those that have voluntarily returned looted funds, their punishments can only be discounted but not totally forgotten, as for the corruption criminals who make the state to expend so much more resources before their conviction is achieved, they must face the full wrath of the law.”

Continuing, the CACOL leader said “like we have also said in our coalition, the best approach to dealing with corrupt leaders is by naming, nailing, shaming and shunning them anywhere and everywhere. This and the application of punitive is what will deter other corrupt leaders or individuals from corrupt practices.”

Concluding, Adeniran advised the government to use the recovered funds for the initial purposes they were meant for and where such projects have been completed with other government funds, the funds should be put in the Federation Account through Treasury Single Account, TSA or an escrow account specially dedicated for recovered funds.”