How recovered assets should be disposed

Presented with fresh opportunity and determined to learn from his mistake, President Muhammadu Buhari said that stolen assets recovered by his government will be sold off with the proceeds to be deposited in the national treasury.
Tellingly, the President said that this time around, there won’t be a repeat of what happened in the 1980s when buildings and other ill-gotten property seized by the military administration were returned to corrupt officials after he was overthrown as Head of State.
Speaking in his hometown of Daura, Katsina state, while receiving a delegation of Daura Emirate Coalition, the President said some thieves of the seized properties have denied ownership of the stolen assets.
He recalled that some years ago, one of his school mates in primary school, who worked at a cottage company until his death, had predicted that looters will deny their loots in Nigeria.
He said some civil servants have 10 houses in Abuja and even more in Kaduna and abroad, adding: “The more you show them the properties, the more they will swear that it does not belong to them.”
The President said the present administration would continue to pursue a robust, effective and legitimate anti-corruption campaign that safeguards the treasury and commonwealth of all Nigerians.
He said the present administration would continue to pursue a robust, effective and legitimate anti-corruption campaign that safeguards the treasury and commonwealth of all Nigerians.
“For most ordinary Nigerians, if you give them good roads, railway and stable electric power they will be happy to carry on with their lives,” he said. ‘‘We are doing so much for our country and we will continue to do more out of the fear of God.”
And, doing so much for the country by leaders, and out of the fear of God, is exactly what Nigeria and its people need to develop and what, unfortunately, they have lacked until now.
For too long, until the second coming of the President, the country’s leaders, their friends and family members have turned Nigeria into a cash cow which they did not hesitate take out from with reckless abandon.
Leaders became looters and property of the state were stolen and made into personal estates while monies in naira and other international currencies were administered and embezzled without any recourse principles of transparency and accountability.
The fear of God was lost among the country’s leaders and brazen corruption and impunity became the order of the day before the advent of this administration while leaders swam in riches to the neglect of the common people who found hard it survive as they wallowed in abject poverty.
Thus, it became proper and a welcome development for the Buhari-led administration to confiscate ill-gotten wealth and property from corrupt leaders and politicians.
But, it is even more ideal to ensure that this time, unlike in the past, confiscated property never manage to get their way back to those who stole them. And the property could get back to them, especially if judgements oozing of the nation’s courts and desperation by some corrupt people and politicians to ensure the President fails to get a second term in office are anything to go by.
It is to this end, therefore, that the statement made by the President that the seized assets will be disposed off by the government and proceeds utilised for benefit of the common man must be welcomed.
Effectively, the President’s message, which we all must appreciate, is that looters of the common patrimony must, at all costs, be stopped and made to pay for their deeds.

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