President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday said that some past government officials who stole public funds while in the saddle had started returning parts of their loot into the government coffers voluntarily.
He however said he was not satisfied yet as his government would stop at nothing to ensure that all stolen funds, and not a fraction, were recovered.
Buhari disclosed this during an interactive session he had with members of the Nigerian community in the Islamic Republic of Iran.
The President is in Iran for the third summit of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum in Tehran.
Buhari did not name the former government officials who have so far returned parts of the looted funds.
He also did not disclose how much had so far been returned to the public treasury.
While answering a question from a Nigerian, Buhari said trial of treasury looters would have commenced but for his administration’s determination to conduct a thorough investigation and gather more evidence needed to prosecute the cases.
He said unlike what was applicable in 1985 when he was a military Head of State when suspects could be detained while being investigated, democracy and the rule of law did not encourage that.
Buhari said, “On corruption; yes, they (the past government officials) are still innocent.
“But, we are collecting documents and some of them have started to return something(looted funds) voluntarily. But we want all.
“When we get those documents, we will formally charge them to court and then we will tell Nigerians those who abused trust when they were entrusted with public funds.
“So, the day of reckoning is gradually approaching.”
The President also promised to deal decisively with saboteurs, who he said were vandalising pipelines and stealing crude oil.
“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 to try and improve power delivery.
“I’m sure you know about the privatisation of the power sector; your old friends, NEPA or the Power Holding Company of Nigeria, have been sold to a number of interest groups.
“But, the fundamental thing about us is that we remain potential in everything except performance.
“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 called themselves militants or whatever, they are still there,” he said.
Buhari also reiterated his readiness to end insurgency in the country.
He assured them that peace would soon return to the troubled parts of the North-East.
The President also assured the Nigerians that his administration would revamp the nation’s educational system from primary school to the tertiary levels.
The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, later issued a statement quoting Buhari as saying that although a number of past officials had begun the voluntary return of stolen funds, his government was not satisfied with tokens.
“We want to have everything back – all that they took by force in 16 years,” the President was quoted as saying.
Shehu said while identifying anti-corruption war as one of the three priorities of the Buhari administration, the President said the necessity for compliance with due process of the law was responsible for the delay in the prosecution of the looters of the country’s economy but that “the day of reckoning is gradually coming.”
He also quoted the President as saying that sabotage and theft of gas were undermining the efforts of his government to increase power supply in the country. To tackle the problem, he said Buhari announced that existing military task forces would be reorganised to ensure a successful protection of the network of gas pipelines.
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