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…Hires senior lawyers for corruption cases

By Johnbosco Agbakwuru

The presidency Saturday, night said the present administration will not stop talking about the alleged massive corruption in previous administration because of the collateral damage it had on the economy of the country.

The presidency also said that the President Muhammadu Buhari led administration will not relent in the prosecution of the cases in court , adding that there was plan in place to invigorate prosecution of corruption cases with top lawyers.

In a statement by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, office of the Vice President, Laolu Akande said Nigerians have not forgotten the severe damage caused the economy by the alleged rampant abuse of public trust and grand larceny that characterized the past administration.

Akande, noted that those who were asking “our people to simply forget the blatant violation of public trust and the pillaging of the nation’s commonwealth witnessed in the past, are saying wittingly or otherwise that we should forget where the shoe actually pinched and pretend as if the social raping of the nation never occurred.”

Continuing he rhetorically asked, “How can we do that? “We have a situation where a former first lady came out openly to claim over $171m found in her accounts and you think Nigerians will simply overlook that.

“You have a situation where hundreds of billions have been recovered including the discovery of $43M cash in an apartment in Ikoyi, and you think Nigerians will simply forget that?

He said it was mere wishful thinking to imagine that Nigerians would just forget all of “those colossal atrocities in the management and disbursement of public funds.”

Asked on the progress of prosecution, Akande said there were tonnes of corruption cases arising from the conduct of the past administration, adding that such pending cases in the courts would hopefully benefit with establishment of special courts for the speedy trial of corruption and other criminal cases.

He added that the presidency was beefing up the prosecution of such cases by planning to bring a number of senior lawyers with high integrity ratings to play active roles and lead the prosecution of some of the cases.

He said, “We have a number of lawyers, senior lawyers, people with solid reputations, who have volunteered to assist in prosecuting the cases, and soon the prosecuting agencies will be assigning specific cases to them.”

He Nigerians assured that the Buhari administration will not relent in the pursuit of corruption cases because “we know that the mass of our people are closely following these cases and expect that consequences would be meted out to those who have violated public trust.”

He added that while there have been concerns about the delay in the pursuit of some of the cases, no one should underestimate the resolve of the Buhari government to push all the cases to its logical conclusion.

According to him, “To those who have asked what has happened to the several instances of corruption that we have spoken about, we say wait and see.

“Sometimes the wheels of Justice may be slow, as it is often said, but they grind exceedingly fine. Let Nigerians know that justice would be served in the end, and the world will see it. We have a President and Vice President who will not take no for an answer on this matters.*

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