A human rights lawyer and elder statesman has given many reasons why it is a crime for President Muhammadu Buhari not to prosecute the many looters who are returning Nigeria's stolen funds.
Dr. Tunji Braithwaite
An elder statesman and human rights lawyer, Dr. Tunji Braithwaite, has said President Muhammadu Buhari is committing a crime by not prosecuting corrupt public officials of the past government who have started returning their loots.
Speaking yesterday, Braithwaite gave reasons why it is a bigger crime for Buhari to look the other way as treasury looters return stolen loots. He said Buhari was encouraging impunity by recovering looted funds through plea bargaining rather than ensuring that justice takes its course as promised during his campaign.
The elder statesman stated that, “It is a crime against the state for anybody to steal public funds. Returning stolen funds quietly without being sanctioned is even worse than the crime of stealing the money. This is morally reprehensible and it can never serve as a deterrent to other corrupt politicians who might want to steal public resources.
“Buhari is pampering those corrupt leaders by just obtaining looted funds and not jailing them. With all the bragging and the promises he made during the campaign, we expected that his war against corruption will be rootless. These public thieves carted away our national assets and in the process, impoverished many Nigerians. Corruption is also responsible for the infrastructural decay we are experiencing. The roads are bad and many Nigerian youths cannot find jobs.”
He urged Buhari to stop his romance with these looters and be more ruthless so as to live up to the expectations of the numerous Nigerians who voted him into power because they believe in his strong personality as a champion of people oriented policies. Braithwaite said it is possible to recover stolen funds and still prosecute the corrupt public officials.
Braithwaite compelled Buhari to identify and prosecute all those who stole Nigeria's money irrespective of the fact that they returned some of the loots. He argued that no matter how much they return, it cannot compensate for the damage their evil acts did to the lives of many Nigerians.
“I think it is morally reprehensible for any government to let those returning stolen funds to go scot-free. Buhari must mention their names and stop pampering them. Corruption has robbed us of valuable infrastructure and the opportunity to develop as a country" he said.