Professor Osinbajo says APC government will query those with questionable wealth

VICE president-elect Professor Yemi Osinbajo has warned that the incoming All Progressives Congress (APC) government would query Nigerians who have acquired questionable wealth over the years as part of its anti-corruption crusade.

 

Professor Osinbajo and president-elect General Muhammadu Buhari were elected on an anti-corruption platform, promising to end graft in public life. They have made tracking down ill-gotten wealth, recovering stolen state funds and prosecuting offenders a major plank of their programme in office.

 

Throwing more light on their plans yesterday, Professor Osinbajo said that Nigerians must question the sources of wealth of the rich. While delivering the keynote address at the Abuja edition of The Platform, he said the incoming administration would ensure zero tolerance for corruption by reforming the justice system.

 

According to Professor Osinbajo, within the last few years, what the country had experienced was a situation where people got away with corrupt practices. He noted that going forward, the incoming government would make sure that corrupt people suffer the consequences of their actions.

 

He added that when people are made to suffer the consequences of corrupt practices it would send a strong message to everyone that the era of looting of the treasury was over. He said that  in view of the fact that the incoming administration would be taking the fight against corruption seriously, one of the reforms that would first be carried out is in the judicial system.

 

Professor Osinbajo said: “We have always talked about zero tolerance for corruption but it is also important that people are made to understand that there will be consequence for corruption. What we have seen so far is that there is hardly any consequence and people simply get away with it and if you get away with it often, it sends a message to everyone that there is no problem and we need to fix that whole thinking that there has to be a consequence for corrupt practices.

 

“People have to explain, for instance, if you are a public servant, that how come you have 50 houses. Somebody needs to ask you those questions and some of the reasons people get away with that is our criminal justice system.”

 

He added that the nation’s judicial system as presently constituted was slow, adding that this had made it easy for people to get away with criminal acts. Professor Osinbajo added that it would be difficult for the Nigerian Police Force in its present form to fight crime in an effective manner owing to what he described as structural problems.