Recovered Loots: SANs, politicians disagree, find out why

–  Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SANs) and politicians have clashed over naming of treasury looters

– The Muhammadu Buhari-led government revealed that N78, 325,354,631.82; $185,119,584.61; £3,508,355.46 and €11, 250 had been recovered from alleged looters

Following the release of recovered loots, Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SANs) and politicians have clashed over naming of treasury looters.

While the some senior lawyers do not want looters named, some SANs and politicians are calling for the naming of looters by President Muhammadu Buhari.

Former NBA President Rotimi Akeredolu (SAN), said the looters should be “named and shamed” to deter others. But Wole Olanipekun said Nigerians should be careful at labelling every person who returns money to government as a looter without weighing the peculiar circumstances and the contingencies compelling the return.

A member of the Ogun state judiciary commission, Abayomi Omoyinmi, said the looters should have been named.

“I feel the government should have named such persons, not necessarily that it will amount to shaming such persons, but at least for the people of Nigeria to know people or persons that have looted our treasury.

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“In any case those that are charged to court are known already. I say this because some of these people do not care about shame,” he said.

Former Minister of Works and Housing Chief Ebenezer Babatope said the government should have done more than releasing the figures.

“They are just talking about corruption without getting to the root. What message and lesson is the government impacting? Government said it had recovered money, but no name is written against the money recovered. You cannot publish amount without giving us names of those who took the money. That is not how to fight corruption; the names of those who took the money should appear beside the amount they returned.”

Former governor of old Anambra State Chief Jim Nwobodo commended the Buhari administration for making public details of recovered looted funds.

He said: “It is a plus for President Muhammadu Buhari and his government. It is a good thing that the government was able to recover such huge amount within one year.

“The recovered fund will assist the government in executing projects contained in the 2016 budget. Those criticising the president’s fight against corruption should have a re-think. The anti-graft war is yielding positive result.

“I support the president in its efforts to get rid of corruption in the system. He should not relent until every kobo looted from the public treasury are recovered. Now we have a leader that Nigerians can trust.”

Also speaking, Minister of Labour, Chris Ngige, said there is no point naming suspected looters when they have not been tried and convicted by a court of law.

“The government’s decision is right and proper. This will encourage other looters to return their loot or part of it. The government deserves commendation for its act of transparency in informing the nation on the details of the recovered loot,” he said.

To Lagos lawyer  Festus Keyamo, the returned money indicate that a lot of stealing took place in the past.

“The money was not picked from the dustbin, human beings were responsible for that. It only goes a long a way to confirm what has been going on in the country. My own concern is that people are still bringing partisanship into the issue.

“This is our common patrimony, and I thought that we are on the course of recovering our common patrimony; therefore, we should put partisanship aside in order to recover the looted funds.

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“It is just like the case of an armed robber who stole money and someone pursues the robber and recoveres the money, but another person is saying ‘why did you fight the robber so hard to collect the money?’ Some are saying that the federal government is recovering money without regard to the rule of law; I think that is not fair enough on the government. We must encourage the government to recover looted funds.

“The last time we had something like this was during the regime of General Murtala Mohammed; we had such aggressiveness in fighting corruption. We also had this in the first coming of Buhari and incidentally he is the one that is doing the same thing again. I think everybody should support him in the fight against corruption,” Keyamo said.

Recall that the Muhammadu Buhari-led government revealed that N78, 325,354,631.82; $185,119,584.61; £3,508,355.46 and €11, 250 had been recovered from alleged looters.

According to the FG, the funds were recovered separately by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, the Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation; Independent Corrupt Practices and other related Offences Commission and the Department of State Services.

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