Buhari’s anti-corruption fight successful – Sagay

* Called for strengthening of CCB.

The Chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption (PACAC) Prof Itse Sagay (SAN), has described as delusional, those saying the anti-corruption fight of the President Muhammadu Buhari-led government has failed.

Sagay stated this on Friday in Abuja during PACAC interactive session with stakeholders.

The PACAC boss maintained that those who criticize the war are mostly those who have been benefiting from the unabated corruption going on the system for decades.
He said, “Regardless of what some elitists Nigerians who are unhappy beneficiaries of the past corruption are saying, the anti corruption war has been extremely successful.
“I don’t think Nigeria has ever seen anything like it has seen in the last two years, and I challenge anybody to contest that position. This year alone, Federal Government is going to take N500billion from what has been recovered so far to assist in operating its budget.
“Anybody that is saying the anti corruption struggle has failed is delusional, because the reality is stack, what has been recovered from Deizani alone surpass any recovery in the history of the country”.
According to him, PACAC was established as an advisory body that will coordinate the activities of all anti-corruption agencies, providing them capacities, necessary information, monitoring and direction to ensure the government succeeds in its anti-corruption war.

He went further to explain that aside providing guidance and requesting for reforms on enabling laws, PACAC recently engaged prosecutors and judges through a manual that would facilitate smooth discharge of corruption cases in special crime courts set up by the judiciary.

Sagay, who took time to explain the mandate of the Committee, said that prior to Buhari’s election, the national treasury was bastardized by the previous government while looters enjoyed their booty without being questioned.
He said, “Nigerians have very short memories, they have forgotten what happened in 2015, when Nigeria was leaking from every side, everything we had was being divided and taken away blatantly.

“I did not hear you all complain, now when the government is doing something about it, then you begin to talk. In the short period of six weeks when the general elections were postponed, just six weeks, the amount of dollars that was disbursed by that government were mind boggling.

“All the Obas in the West would tell you stories of how our money was being dished out for electoral reasons all that happened and nothing is wrong with that.

“A government comes and it is institutionalizing the struggle against corruption and its commitment to it and people are complaining.”

Reacting to the feud between him and members of the National Assembly as well as with the APC leadership, Sagay said, “You are saying I attacked the National Assembly, is that a sin, remember that members of the National Assembly have taken hundreds of millions of naira home every year, the Nigerian minimum wage is N18,000 a month.

“We pay them for the cloth they wear, because they have wardrobe allowance, we pay them for seating in a comfortable air-conditioned, cushioned place, and we are paying them hardship allowance, for being in those places.

“We are paying for cutleries that they use in their houses, we are paying them for newspapers that they read, and you are saying that I should keep quiet, I am going to be very aggressive when people become unreasonable.

“Yes, I came out and attacked them, and I will attack them again, and I would attack the APC executive that is tolerating these monsters, the greatest monster of all whom we all know”.

Sagay also pointed out that the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) is very weak, saying that, “Yes, I agree that the Code of Conduct Bureau is weak, we told them they are doing nothing, that’s the body that can do the greatest amount of work in the anti-corruption struggle, because they have all the Assets Declaration of all these Publicly Exposed Persons”.

According to him, all the CCB needs to do is to go and confirm the asset decalartion forms of all politically exposed persons and compare it with the fact on the ground and an enormous amount of cash and properties will be exposed and forfeited to the government while they will be sent to jail.

On controversial AbdulRasheed Maina, Sagay said, “On the issues of Maina, he has been sacked, what do you expect the President to do. Those responsible for calling him are being investigated that is the best that can be done, we cannot be too blood thirsty”.