Speaking while addressing the Nigerian community at the Nigerian House in Tehran, Iran where he held a reception with them, President Buhari said the government was not satisfied with the partial return of the looted funds but wanted everything. He added that that the present administration has intensified efforts at recovering all public funds now in the pockets of former government officials and their cronies.
In Iran for a three-day Gas Exporting Countries’ Forum summit, President Buhari returned to Nigeria yesterday. He added that it was easy for him, during his tenure as military head of state in 1985, to arrest and put alleged corrupt individuals in protective custody but that at the moment, the dictates of the rule of law and due process has slowed him down in the prosecution of corruption cases.
President Buhari said: “On corruption, yes, they are still innocent but, we are collecting documents and some of them have started voluntarily returning something but we want all. When we get those documents then we will formally charge them to court and then we will tell Nigerians to know those who abused trust when they were entrusted with public funds or when they took it by force for 16 years.
In addition, the president attributed the poor power supply in the country to power saboteurs who go and blow up installations. He added that power supply had gradually improved since he assumed office but acknowledged that there was still a lot to be done.
“I’m sure you know about the privatisation of the power sector as your old friends Nepa or the Power Holding Company of Nigeria has been sold to a number of interest groups. However, the fundamental thing about us is that we remain potentially in everything except performance.
“We have a lot of gas, we have a lot of qualified people but again we have a lot of saboteurs who go and blow installations. Those, who normally steal Nigerian crude and those who blow up installations, whether they called themselves militants or whatever, they are still there,” he said.
On security, President Buhari reassured Nigerians of the government’s resolve to eliminate the Boko Haram insurgency and restore peace in the northeast of the country. He also restated the government’s determination to address the rot in the country’s educational system, beginning from primary schools to the tertiary level.
President Buhari commended the Nigerian community in Iran for its good conduct, saying that the government would continue to encourage more Nigerians to study in that country because of the level of discipline and orderliness there. In his remarks, the Nigerian charge de affairs in Iran, Ali Magashi, attested to the zero crime rate among Nigerians living in Iran.
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