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Buhari Signs Executive Order Against Corruption - Politics - Nairaland

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Buhari Signs Executive Order Against Corruption by janetdaniels201: 10:31pm On Jul 05, 2018
EXECUTIVE ORDER 6: BUHARI ACQUIRES A BIG STICK AGAINST CORRUPTION.

BY GARBA SHEHU

Nigeria’s widespread corruption, which has been eating the eco-system like termites, met on audacious response from President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday afternoon with the signing of a new Executive Order No.6 on preservation of assets connected with corruption. President Buhari holds the view that after three years in office it was another good time to further review the achievements of the administration and set goals in a key policy area, the anti-corruption war.

On the basis of the re-appraisals made, the President said that it had become “necessary to re-kit and re-tool our arsenal to be able to affectively tackle corruption’s perilous counter-attack against the Nigerian State.” As a result, the Federal Government of Nigeria had “declared a national emergency to deal with that crisis.” President Buhari came into power in 2015 vowing to fight corruption which had been undermining the country’s economy, politics, governance and entire society.

The government is of the understanding that corruption is one of Nigeria’s major challenges; one that had obstructed the country’s drive to realise its full potentials. Most citizens believe that corruption is holding the country by the jugular and must be tackled if we are to make progress and make meaning of our lives. Since the war against corruption unleashed by President Buhari took hold, significant strides had been achieved. Vehicles of fraud and embezzlement have been stopped dead in their tracks; enabled with the implementation of the Bank Verification Number policy and signing the Open Government Partnership and rebuilding the anti-corruption institutions, and generally the country’s highly improved corporate governance.

Fifty thousand ghost workers were deleted from monthly payroll, saving an annual N200 billion in payments; ghost pensioners have in their thousands been fished out and with vigour and precision, millions of bank accounts with suspicious cash deposits are being investigated. A large number of senior public officials are being investigated and a huge sum of money including buildings, estates, ships and automobiles have been seized. Former Head of State, Gen. Sani Abacha’s money, USD326 million was recovered and will be distributed to the poor.

The Buhari administration has so far investigated and jailed ex-governors, ministers, generals and a large number of public officials. All of these efforts are building up to an ecosystem that is pro-poor, people oriented, clean, transparent and one that doesn’t tolerate corruption. Based on all these, Nigeria’s anti-corruption war under President Buhari, striking and visible as it is, has aroused interests both locally and internationally. The President is currently serving as the Champion of Anti-corruption for the entire continent, selected by his peers in the African Union.

It is an established fact that, all over the world, deep-rooted corruption is always difficult to deal with. It is mostly hidden. It is hard to detect, and as we have seen in dealing with the world’s economic powers, they love, cherish and nurture it in countries like ours by holding onto stolen assets against all efforts to retrieve them. But there are signs that things are changing.

Every day, harsh words against the government are all that the President gets from Wadata House, the Head Office of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, because their leaders, as do some other Nigerians are already feeling the heat. To say the truth, I am not sure if there are many of our citizens who expected any PDP support for the President in his war against corruption.

In spite of all the achievements recorded, you still hear complaints that the anti-corruption isn’t as dramatic as Nigerians wished it to be. Some want the country to do it the Chinese way. Others say the government is not arresting the powerful people.

For the Buhari administration, concern lies in the fact that corruption has become a big problem because investigation, prosecution and trial in courts are made harder by persons accused of crimes relating to it. They are using the enormous resources in their possession to thwart the system. The President’s view is that, it is only a clean Nigeria that can attract foreign investment, free money for more of the capital projects the administration is executing and creating jobs for our teeming population of young men and women.

The President says in the interest of justice and the welfare of the Nigerian state, persons accused of crimes relating to corruption must be prevented from utilizing the proceeds and dissipating such assets suspected to be proceeds of corruption (or associated with corruption) pending final determination of any investigation or legal actions related to such assets or owners thereof.

In signing the new Executive Order, he said: “I’m bound to restrict dealings in suspicious assets…to preserve same in accordance with the rule of law and with guarantee and safeguard of fundamental human rights.” A person who feels that his rights are infringed is free to go to a high court. To understand the threat posed to our democracy and economy by unchecked access to stolen or illicit funds, the President cited the large volume of cash government is fight to retrieve through the legal system.

The aggregate value of those funds involved in some of the on-going prosecution of high profile corruption cases is N595,409,838,452.25k. This amount is more than what has been budgeted this year for the all-important Ministry of Power, Works and Housing (N344 billion) and social Investment (N500b), intended for millions of Nigerians through programs such as the N-Power Graduate Employment Scheme, the Conditional Cash Transfer, CCT to the poorest of the power and GEEP (Government Economic Empowerment Programme).

The 2018 budget which has made the highest appropriation ever in the sum of N344 billion to the Ministry of Works is to be spent on the following roads:

- Lagos-Shagamu-Ibadan Dual Carriageway

- Ilorin-Jebba-Mokwa-Bokani Road

- Kano-Maiduguri Road

- Enugu-Port-Harcourt Dual Carriageway

- Odukpani-Itu-Ikot-Ekpene Road

- Sokoto-Tambuwal -Jega-Kontagora-Mokwa Road

- Dualization of Ojabana to Benin Road

- Calabar-Ugep-Katsina-Ala Road

- Onitsha-Enugu Dual Carriageway

- Abuja-Kaduna-Zaria-Kano Dual Carriageway

- Benin-Ofosu-Ore-Ajebandele-Sagamu expressway phase III

- Kontagora-Bangi Road

The amount of money voted this year for these roads therefore translates to about 57% of the monies recovered by the on-going high-profile corruption cases. The defendants in these cases have unrestricted access to these funds using it as a war chest. They have used it to stall administrative and judicial processes. No gainsaying that it is impossible to achieve any meaningful progress in the fight against corruption where there is no effective law enforcement and prosecution of offenders via an effective justice system. In simple terms, the idea of the new Executive Order is to ensure that criminal elements are prevented from using their illicit resources to “allure, pervert and/or intimidate the investigative and judicial process.”

The purpose of the Executive Order is not to forfeit peoples properties but rather temporarily deny access which can be used to corrupt or interfere with the investigative and judicial processes. Equally, it is not intended to, and cannot take over the powers and functions of statutory agencies with prosecutorial powers or create new ones. Rather, this is designed to activate existing provisions of the law on freezing of assets and to establish a system of coordination under the office of the Attorney-General, who has constitutional powers over all prosecutions.

Henceforth, it will be a criminal offence to violate the Executive Order. Prosecution authorities will, in all future prosecutions, file application to freeze the assets implicated before, or alongside the charge information sheet. For cases that are on-going, such application shall be filed within seven days of this Executive Order.

As provided by the law and the constitution, the President is empowered to “abolish all corrupt practices and abuse of power”. It is in his determination to fully execute this function that he declared a national emergency to deal with the threat posed by corruption. While it will definitely take a while for the President Buhari war against corruption to penetrate the lower rungs of government and society, a pervasive canker that had been a part of daily working life of the nation for so long, there is no doubt that the daring response through this Executive Order will go a long way in fast tracking that process.

Finally, then, is to state that a win for President Buhari in 2019 in next year’s general elections is the best way to provide a good and stable leadership for tackling the problems of corruption in Nigeria.

Garba Shehu is the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity.

22 Likes 2 Shares

Re: Buhari Signs Executive Order Against Corruption by Ayomel(m): 11:05pm On Jul 05, 2018
Lies upon lies . To point out just one Abuja - Kaduna road is a death trap for now worst then when GEJ was there, What are they saying please ? This administration is even corrupt than the former administration . Nigerians becomes poorer, dirtier, nigerians are now committing suicide.
THANK YOU FOR THE LOVE U HAVE FOR THE COUNTRY WE REALLY APPRECIATE WE CAN MOVE ON FROM HERE COME AND BE GOING.
Clueless set of people

44 Likes 5 Shares

Re: Buhari Signs Executive Order Against Corruption by Wealthandjobs: 11:10pm On Jul 05, 2018
janetdaniels201:
EXECUTIVE ORDER 6: BUHARI ACQUIRES A BIG STICK AGAINST CORRUPTION.

BY GARBA SHEHU

Nigeria’s widespread corruption, which has been eating the eco-system like termites, met on audacious response from President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday afternoon with the signing of a new Executive Order No.6 on preservation of assets connected with corruption. President Buhari holds the view that after three years in office it was another good time to further review the achievements of the administration and set goals in a key policy area, the anti-corruption war.

On the basis of the re-appraisals made, the President said that it had become “necessary to re-kit and re-tool our arsenal to be able to affectively tackle corruption’s perilous counter-attack against the Nigerian State.” As a result, the Federal Government of Nigeria had “declared a national emergency to deal with that crisis.” President Buhari came into power in 2015 vowing to fight corruption which had been undermining the country’s economy, politics, governance and entire society.

The government is of the understanding that corruption is one of Nigeria’s major challenges; one that had obstructed the country’s drive to realise its full potentials. Most citizens believe that corruption is holding the country by the jugular and must be tackled if we are to make progress and make meaning of our lives. Since the war against corruption unleashed by President Buhari took hold, significant strides had been achieved. Vehicles of fraud and embezzlement have been stopped dead in their tracks; enabled with the implementation of the Bank Verification Number policy and signing the Open Government Partnership and rebuilding the anti-corruption institutions, and generally the country’s highly improved corporate governance.

Fifty thousand ghost workers were deleted from monthly payroll, saving an annual N200 billion in payments; ghost pensioners have in their thousands been fished out and with vigour and precision, millions of bank accounts with suspicious cash deposits are being investigated. A large number of senior public officials are being investigated and a huge sum of money including buildings, estates, ships and automobiles have been seized. Former Head of State, Gen. Sani Abacha’s money, USD326 million was recovered and will be distributed to the poor.

The Buhari administration has so far investigated and jailed ex-governors, ministers, generals and a large number of public officials. All of these efforts are building up to an ecosystem that is pro-poor, people oriented, clean, transparent and one that doesn’t tolerate corruption. Based on all these, Nigeria’s anti-corruption war under President Buhari, striking and visible as it is, has aroused interests both locally and internationally. The President is currently serving as the Champion of Anti-corruption for the entire continent, selected by his peers in the African Union.

It is an established fact that, all over the world, deep-rooted corruption is always difficult to deal with. It is mostly hidden. It is hard to detect, and as we have seen in dealing with the world’s economic powers, they love, cherish and nurture it in countries like ours by holding onto stolen assets against all efforts to retrieve them. But there are signs that things are changing.

Every day, harsh words against the government are all that the President gets from Wadata House, the Head Office of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, because their leaders, as do some other Nigerians are already feeling the heat. To say the truth, I am not sure if there are many of our citizens who expected any PDP support for the President in his war against corruption.

In spite of all the achievements recorded, you still hear complaints that the anti-corruption isn’t as dramatic as Nigerians wished it to be. Some want the country to do it the Chinese way. Others say the government is not arresting the powerful people.

For the Buhari administration, concern lies in the fact that corruption has become a big problem because investigation, prosecution and trial in courts are made harder by persons accused of crimes relating to it. They are using the enormous resources in their possession to thwart the system. The President’s view is that, it is only a clean Nigeria that can attract foreign investment, free money for more of the capital projects the administration is executing and creating jobs for our teeming population of young men and women.

The President says in the interest of justice and the welfare of the Nigerian state, persons accused of crimes relating to corruption must be prevented from utilizing the proceeds and dissipating such assets suspected to be proceeds of corruption (or associated with corruption) pending final determination of any investigation or legal actions related to such assets or owners thereof.

In signing the new Executive Order, he said: “I’m bound to restrict dealings in suspicious assets…to preserve same in accordance with the rule of law and with guarantee and safeguard of fundamental human rights.” A person who feels that his rights are infringed is free to go to a high court. To understand the threat posed to our democracy and economy by unchecked access to stolen or illicit funds, the President cited the large volume of cash government is fight to retrieve through the legal system.

The aggregate value of those funds involved in some of the on-going prosecution of high profile corruption cases is N595,409,838,452.25k. This amount is more than what has been budgeted this year for the all-important Ministry of Power, Works and Housing (N344 billion) and social Investment (N500b), intended for millions of Nigerians through programs such as the N-Power Graduate Employment Scheme, the Conditional Cash Transfer, CCT to the poorest of the power and GEEP (Government Economic Empowerment Programme).

The 2018 budget which has made the highest appropriation ever in the sum of N344 billion to the Ministry of Works is to be spent on the following roads:

- Lagos-Shagamu-Ibadan Dual Carriageway

- Ilorin-Jebba-Mokwa-Bokani Road

- Kano-Maiduguri Road

- Enugu-Port-Harcourt Dual Carriageway

- Odukpani-Itu-Ikot-Ekpene Road

- Sokoto-Tambuwal -Jega-Kontagora-Mokwa Road

- Dualization of Ojabana to Benin Road

- Calabar-Ugep-Katsina-Ala Road

- Onitsha-Enugu Dual Carriageway

- Abuja-Kaduna-Zaria-Kano Dual Carriageway

- Benin-Ofosu-Ore-Ajebandele-Sagamu expressway phase III

- Kontagora-Bangi Road

The amount of money voted this year for these roads therefore translates to about 57% of the monies recovered by the on-going high-profile corruption cases. The defendants in these cases have unrestricted access to these funds using it as a war chest. They have used it to stall administrative and judicial processes. No gainsaying that it is impossible to achieve any meaningful progress in the fight against corruption where there is no effective law enforcement and prosecution of offenders via an effective justice system. In simple terms, the idea of the new Executive Order is to ensure that criminal elements are prevented from using their illicit resources to “allure, pervert and/or intimidate the investigative and judicial process.”

The purpose of the Executive Order is not to forfeit peoples properties but rather temporarily deny access which can be used to corrupt or interfere with the investigative and judicial processes. Equally, it is not intended to, and cannot take over the powers and functions of statutory agencies with prosecutorial powers or create new ones. Rather, this is designed to activate existing provisions of the law on freezing of assets and to establish a system of coordination under the office of the Attorney-General, who has constitutional powers over all prosecutions.

Henceforth, it will be a criminal offence to violate the Executive Order. Prosecution authorities will, in all future prosecutions, file application to freeze the assets implicated before, or alongside the charge information sheet. For cases that are on-going, such application shall be filed within seven days of this Executive Order.

As provided by the law and the constitution, the President is empowered to “abolish all corrupt practices and abuse of power”. It is in his determination to fully execute this function that he declared a national emergency to deal with the threat posed by corruption. While it will definitely take a while for the President Buhari war against corruption to penetrate the lower rungs of government and society, a pervasive canker that had been a part of daily working life of the nation for so long, there is no doubt that the daring response through this Executive Order will go a long way in fast tracking that process.

Finally, then, is to state that a win for President Buhari in 2019 in next year’s general elections is the best way to provide a good and stable leadership for tackling the problems of corruption in Nigeria.

Garba Shehu is the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity.
God bless President Muhammadu Buhari.
God bless Nigeria.

64 Likes 3 Shares

Re: Buhari Signs Executive Order Against Corruption by ReformedAPC: 11:16pm On Jul 05, 2018
Blablablabla
Re: Buhari Signs Executive Order Against Corruption by Nobody: 11:18pm On Jul 05, 2018
Wait for these people first!
Re: Buhari Signs Executive Order Against Corruption by foolbuster: 8:51am On Jul 06, 2018
blocking the accounts of people that have not been convicted only reasserts the known fact that buhari is a tyrant. So any one branded a suspect without any proof or conviction can be denied access to his finances. Buhari has nothing to offer but bitterness, personal grudges, bloodshed and suffering to nigeria. For someone that claims to be passionate about fighting corruption, after over 3 years this order coming now we are few months to the elections is clear what the motive is.

PS: The operators of this forum are scared of the government. So they put mostly things that won't get them in trouble with the authority. First the title of this thread was "buhari signs executive order to block account of suspected looters" before it was now changed.

34 Likes 6 Shares

Re: Buhari Signs Executive Order Against Corruption by MrGreenMavro: 8:51am On Jul 06, 2018
cheesy
Re: Buhari Signs Executive Order Against Corruption by Treasure1919(f): 8:51am On Jul 06, 2018
Story for the gods....

3 Likes 1 Share

Re: Buhari Signs Executive Order Against Corruption by anibi9674: 8:52am On Jul 06, 2018
ok.
Re: Buhari Signs Executive Order Against Corruption by chinavs9ja(m): 8:52am On Jul 06, 2018
This Fulani man don start his strategy... sad


I am a professional website designer, check my signature below

4 Likes 2 Shares

Re: Buhari Signs Executive Order Against Corruption by MANNABBQGRILLS: 8:52am On Jul 06, 2018
GOD BLESS MY PRESIDENT

29 Likes 2 Shares

Re: Buhari Signs Executive Order Against Corruption by Jabajols: 8:52am On Jul 06, 2018
God bless Nigeria

13 Likes

Re: Buhari Signs Executive Order Against Corruption by LazyNairalander(m): 8:53am On Jul 06, 2018
Lol. No hiding place for looters. good morning everyone.



check my SIGNATURE

18 Likes

Re: Buhari Signs Executive Order Against Corruption by LUMZolumide: 8:53am On Jul 06, 2018
Mr Buherdri, just leave looters alone and find solution to the killings....

1 Like

Re: Buhari Signs Executive Order Against Corruption by argon500: 8:54am On Jul 06, 2018
Na today
Re: Buhari Signs Executive Order Against Corruption by Bossontop(m): 8:56am On Jul 06, 2018
undecided
Will the members of apc(reformed, deformed and etc) be affected??....... Kwarruption fight kor

16 Likes 1 Share

Re: Buhari Signs Executive Order Against Corruption by Paperwhite(m): 8:56am On Jul 06, 2018
People are being killed with reckless abandon.Life is now worthless in Nigeria today.People can't even have or provide the basic necessities of life.
While a clueless,confused, grossly irresponsible and incompetent president is obsessed with a propaganda antigraft war. embarassed Is corruption Nigeria's only problem Mr.President
Meanwhile from where did this executive order took its roots from

10 Likes

Re: Buhari Signs Executive Order Against Corruption by aribisala0(m): 8:58am On Jul 06, 2018
What is the constitutional or legal basis and status of these Orders

5 Likes 1 Share

Re: Buhari Signs Executive Order Against Corruption by chiedu7: 8:58am On Jul 06, 2018
Every opposition member will have his account blocked

6 Likes

Re: Buhari Signs Executive Order Against Corruption by SniperSmurf(m): 8:58am On Jul 06, 2018
*Laughing in Diezani's voice*

Its too late Mr Buhari. cheesy
Re: Buhari Signs Executive Order Against Corruption by Opinionated: 8:58am On Jul 06, 2018
Re: Buhari Signs Executive Order Against Corruption by softmind24: 8:59am On Jul 06, 2018
angry
Re: Buhari Signs Executive Order Against Corruption by CSTR1005: 8:59am On Jul 06, 2018
It is actually a good policy. It is a no brainer actually

In civilised countries, once you are accused of corruption especially by the SEC or FBI, your accounts would be immediately frozen pending the finalisation of the legal proceedings.

I am surprised that Nigeria is just doing that.


Thumbs up to the president. I am not his biggest fan but this is a step in the right direction.

Corruption must be killed.

30 Likes

Re: Buhari Signs Executive Order Against Corruption by EngrOgunrinola1(m): 9:00am On Jul 06, 2018
Some people will not still be happy to hear this... #PMB till 2023 If you know-you know

21 Likes 2 Shares

Re: Buhari Signs Executive Order Against Corruption by badman007(m): 9:01am On Jul 06, 2018
They make it seem like they have a clue what they doing.
Re: Buhari Signs Executive Order Against Corruption by udeenz(m): 9:01am On Jul 06, 2018
Buhari till 2023 Insha Allah

5 Likes

Re: Buhari Signs Executive Order Against Corruption by chriseal: 9:03am On Jul 06, 2018
janetdaniels201:
EXECUTIVE ORDER 6: BUHARI ACQUIRES A BIG STICK AGAINST CORRUPTION.

BY GARBA SHEHU

Nigeria’s widespread corruption, which has been eating the eco-system like termites, met on audacious response from President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday afternoon with the signing of a new Executive Order No.6 on preservation of assets connected with corruption. President Buhari holds the view that after three years in office it was another good time to further review the achievements of the administration and set goals in a key policy area, the anti-corruption war.

On the basis of the re-appraisals made, the President said that it had become “necessary to re-kit and re-tool our arsenal to be able to affectively tackle corruption’s perilous counter-attack against the Nigerian State.” As a result, the Federal Government of Nigeria had “declared a national emergency to deal with that crisis.” President Buhari came into power in 2015 vowing to fight corruption which had been undermining the country’s economy, politics, governance and entire society.

The government is of the understanding that corruption is one of Nigeria’s major challenges; one that had obstructed the country’s drive to realise its full potentials. Most citizens believe that corruption is holding the country by the jugular and must be tackled if we are to make progress and make meaning of our lives. Since the war against corruption unleashed by President Buhari took hold, significant strides had been achieved. Vehicles of fraud and embezzlement have been stopped dead in their tracks; enabled with the implementation of the Bank Verification Number policy and signing the Open Government Partnership and rebuilding the anti-corruption institutions, and generally the country’s highly improved corporate governance.

Fifty thousand ghost workers were deleted from monthly payroll, saving an annual N200 billion in payments; ghost pensioners have in their thousands been fished out and with vigour and precision, millions of bank accounts with suspicious cash deposits are being investigated. A large number of senior public officials are being investigated and a huge sum of money including buildings, estates, ships and automobiles have been seized. Former Head of State, Gen. Sani Abacha’s money, USD326 million was recovered and will be distributed to the poor.

The Buhari administration has so far investigated and jailed ex-governors, ministers, generals and a large number of public officials. All of these efforts are building up to an ecosystem that is pro-poor, people oriented, clean, transparent and one that doesn’t tolerate corruption. Based on all these, Nigeria’s anti-corruption war under President Buhari, striking and visible as it is, has aroused interests both locally and internationally. The President is currently serving as the Champion of Anti-corruption for the entire continent, selected by his peers in the African Union.

It is an established fact that, all over the world, deep-rooted corruption is always difficult to deal with. It is mostly hidden. It is hard to detect, and as we have seen in dealing with the world’s economic powers, they love, cherish and nurture it in countries like ours by holding onto stolen assets against all efforts to retrieve them. But there are signs that things are changing.

Every day, harsh words against the government are all that the President gets from Wadata House, the Head Office of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, because their leaders, as do some other Nigerians are already feeling the heat. To say the truth, I am not sure if there are many of our citizens who expected any PDP support for the President in his war against corruption.

In spite of all the achievements recorded, you still hear complaints that the anti-corruption isn’t as dramatic as Nigerians wished it to be. Some want the country to do it the Chinese way. Others say the government is not arresting the powerful people.

For the Buhari administration, concern lies in the fact that corruption has become a big problem because investigation, prosecution and trial in courts are made harder by persons accused of crimes relating to it. They are using the enormous resources in their possession to thwart the system. The President’s view is that, it is only a clean Nigeria that can attract foreign investment, free money for more of the capital projects the administration is executing and creating jobs for our teeming population of young men and women.

The President says in the interest of justice and the welfare of the Nigerian state, persons accused of crimes relating to corruption must be prevented from utilizing the proceeds and dissipating such assets suspected to be proceeds of corruption (or associated with corruption) pending final determination of any investigation or legal actions related to such assets or owners thereof.

In signing the new Executive Order, he said: “I’m bound to restrict dealings in suspicious assets…to preserve same in accordance with the rule of law and with guarantee and safeguard of fundamental human rights.” A person who feels that his rights are infringed is free to go to a high court. To understand the threat posed to our democracy and economy by unchecked access to stolen or illicit funds, the President cited the large volume of cash government is fight to retrieve through the legal system.

The aggregate value of those funds involved in some of the on-going prosecution of high profile corruption cases is N595,409,838,452.25k. This amount is more than what has been budgeted this year for the all-important Ministry of Power, Works and Housing (N344 billion) and social Investment (N500b), intended for millions of Nigerians through programs such as the N-Power Graduate Employment Scheme, the Conditional Cash Transfer, CCT to the poorest of the power and GEEP (Government Economic Empowerment Programme).

The 2018 budget which has made the highest appropriation ever in the sum of N344 billion to the Ministry of Works is to be spent on the following roads:

- Lagos-Shagamu-Ibadan Dual Carriageway

- Ilorin-Jebba-Mokwa-Bokani Road

- Kano-Maiduguri Road

- Enugu-Port-Harcourt Dual Carriageway

- Odukpani-Itu-Ikot-Ekpene Road

- Sokoto-Tambuwal -Jega-Kontagora-Mokwa Road

- Dualization of Ojabana to Benin Road

- Calabar-Ugep-Katsina-Ala Road

- Onitsha-Enugu Dual Carriageway

- Abuja-Kaduna-Zaria-Kano Dual Carriageway

- Benin-Ofosu-Ore-Ajebandele-Sagamu expressway phase III

- Kontagora-Bangi Road

The amount of money voted this year for these roads therefore translates to about 57% of the monies recovered by the on-going high-profile corruption cases. The defendants in these cases have unrestricted access to these funds using it as a war chest. They have used it to stall administrative and judicial processes. No gainsaying that it is impossible to achieve any meaningful progress in the fight against corruption where there is no effective law enforcement and prosecution of offenders via an effective justice system. In simple terms, the idea of the new Executive Order is to ensure that criminal elements are prevented from using their illicit resources to “allure, pervert and/or intimidate the investigative and judicial process.”

The purpose of the Executive Order is not to forfeit peoples properties but rather temporarily deny access which can be used to corrupt or interfere with the investigative and judicial processes. Equally, it is not intended to, and cannot take over the powers and functions of statutory agencies with prosecutorial powers or create new ones. Rather, this is designed to activate existing provisions of the law on freezing of assets and to establish a system of coordination under the office of the Attorney-General, who has constitutional powers over all prosecutions.

Henceforth, it will be a criminal offence to violate the Executive Order. Prosecution authorities will, in all future prosecutions, file application to freeze the assets implicated before, or alongside the charge information sheet. For cases that are on-going, such application shall be filed within seven days of this Executive Order.

As provided by the law and the constitution, the President is empowered to “abolish all corrupt practices and abuse of power”. It is in his determination to fully execute this function that he declared a national emergency to deal with the threat posed by corruption. While it will definitely take a while for the President Buhari war against corruption to penetrate the lower rungs of government and society, a pervasive canker that had been a part of daily working life of the nation for so long, there is no doubt that the daring response through this Executive Order will go a long way in fast tracking that process.

Finally, then, is to state that a win for President Buhari in 2019 in next year’s general elections is the best way to provide a good and stable leadership for tackling the problems of corruption in Nigeria.

Garba Shehu is the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity.


Continue u na wicked plans, God go scatter them come 2019
Re: Buhari Signs Executive Order Against Corruption by gare(f): 9:04am On Jul 06, 2018
THIS ARE ACTIONS YOU SHOULD HAVE TAKEN WHEN YOU FIRST CAME INTO OFFICE, IT IS BECOMING VERY OBVIOUS THAT YOU WILL BE LOSING THE NEXT GENERAL ELECTION YOU HAVE DECIDED TO GO AFTER YOUR RIVALS THE PDP MEMBERS BY LOCKING THEIR ACCOUNTS, BUT YOU CANT LOCK OUR VOTES.

WE WOULD HAVE TAKEN YOUR FIGHT AGAINST CORRUPTION SEROUS IF ONLY YOU HAD INVESTIGATED THE LIKES OF TINUBU, AMAECHI, FAYEMI, FASHOLA, AND EVEN MOST RECENTLY YOUR SFG, WHO WALKED AWAY AND NOTHING WAS DONE TO HIM AND YOU TAKE NIGERIANS FOR FOOLS BY COMING UP WITH THIS YOU WANT US TO CLAP FOR YOU OR GIVE YOU A STANDING OVATION, WE SORRY MR. PRESIDENT WE KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING, BUT YOU CANT LOCK OUR VOTES. #YOU CAN'T LOCK OUR VOTES#

YOU CANT NOT VISIBLY SHOW US ANYTHING YOU HAVE ACHIEVED IN THREE, FINE YOU LOCKE UP SOME OF YOUR OPPONENTS, BUT THAT IS NOT ALL TO GOVERNANCE, WHILE YOU ARE FIGHTING YOUR OPPONENTS IN THE NAME OF FIGHTING CORRUPTION YOU SHOULD ENSURE THE WELFARE OF CITIZENS IS NOT LEFT OUT, HOW DOES SENDING PEOPLE TO JAIL PROVIDES JOB, ACCOMMODATION, FOOD ON THE TABLE.

NO HARD FEELINGS YOU HAVE DONE THE BEST YOU CAN WITHIN YOUR CAPABILITY, IT IS THE TIME FOR YOU TO STEP ASIDE AND LET SOMEONE ELSE TRY.

17 Likes 2 Shares

Re: Buhari Signs Executive Order Against Corruption by bart10: 9:07am On Jul 06, 2018
Lies kiss
Re: Buhari Signs Executive Order Against Corruption by SalamRushdie: 9:07am On Jul 06, 2018
All clearly targeted at maliciously targeting perceived sources of opposition funding before 2019....This is premised on the notion that money wins elections in Nigeria but it's time for Nigerians to show the world that ist not finance or rigging that wins elections here but the will of the people !!!!

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Re: Buhari Signs Executive Order Against Corruption by babstide(m): 9:08am On Jul 06, 2018
chiedu7:
Every opposition member will have his account blocked

Why now? It is a strategy to silence opposition. Let's see how the drama will be unfolded.

2 Likes 1 Share

Re: Buhari Signs Executive Order Against Corruption by Praktikals(m): 9:08am On Jul 06, 2018
Children of hate will still find fault in this laudable anti corruption move

12 Likes

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