President Muhammadu Buhari has called on the judiciary and the legislature to collaborate with the Executive in the war against corruption. Speaking at the commissioning of the new headquarters of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission in Abuja yesterday, the president said “it is my hope and expectation that the judiciary, which is a critical stakeholder in the war against corruption, will continue to collaborate with the executive to bring corrupt people to book. “Permit me to cease this opportunity to call on the legislature, which requires to provide the legal framework in the anti-corruption war to assist in the determination to ride our nation of corruption, through reviwing the provisions in our laws and providing new legislation.” President Buhari also said there was no intention to witch-hunt anyone in the fight against corruption and insisted that the fight against corruption must continue. According to him, “This government promised to fight corruption but corruption will continue to fight back. My first attempt to fight corruption, corruption fought back successfully. I was removed as the Head of State, detained for three years and people who we recovered stolen money from, were given back their money and I remained in detention up until my mother had to die to save me from detention. So, in spite of these,our objective of fighting corruption remains steadfast. “This is another milestone in our fight against corruption. Since 2015, I had made it clear of my intention to fight corruption. Everyone now knows that everyone will be held accountable for his deeds. We have recovered and still recovering trillions of naira of stolen funds from leaders in the last few years. “We never intended and we are not engaged in witch hunting but we are determined within the law to bring people to account for their deeds. On the structure, he said “what I see here, is not only a structure of concrete, I see in this edifice the form of materials that are concrete in nature and I see in the office the form of material to fight corruption. Corruption not only kills government, it also kills societies. It is the major reason why we are struggling with basic development issues.” He also called for cooperation of other countries to recover and return stolen funds and even stop the movement of stolen funds out of the country. Also speaking, the acting chairman of the EFCC, Ibrahim Magu said the building took eight years to be completed and it boast of a forensic lab, space for 700 staff, hospital, and other major modern equipment. Magu also stated that between January to May, the EFCC has secured 89 convictions, while the total convictions secured in the last two and a half years stood at about 489, and over N500 billion has been recovered and paid to the victims or government coffers as the case may be. In his goodwill message, speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogora tasked the federal government to ensure proper welfare packages for the staff of the EFCC, who are engaged in the fight against corruption in order to avoid temptation. He also pledged National Assembly’s support and collaborations in the fight against corruption and noted that there are millions of Nigerians who are corrupt free.
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