Comrade Debo Adeniran is an anti-corruption crusader and chairman, Campaign Against Corrupt Leaders (CACOL)
It is a good start that President Muhammadu Buhari has decided to trace the looted money to all the countries where they are domiciled and requesting or working with authorities of those countries with a view to repatriating such stolen funds to Nigeria. The president should not waste time in probing the looters as long as he knows the looters already.
What he should do is to hand them over to anti corruption agencies which should do diligent investigations on it and ensure that the anti-corruption agencies have the materials with which they will conduct the investigations, prepare quality charges against them and ensure that they are convicted.
The punishment for the convicted looters should go beyond slap-on-the wrist. It should be deterrent enough that every civil and public servant would be afraid to conspire with anybody to steal state funds and what we are recommending is not actually death penalty but life jail for anybody that stole up to N10 million.
All their properties and everything they must have possessed should be deemed to have been acquired through fraudulent practices, corruption, stealing, embezzlement, extortion, kick-back etc. and should be confiscated by the state.
I will also suggest that instead of wasting more money and time; since the report of the probe would still be sent to the anti-graft agencies, the agencies should rather be strengthened with men, material and money to execute their task without leaving any stone unturned.
President Buhari should also prevail on the governments of the countries where the public funds are stashed to assist Nigeria to expose those behind the practice.
Property acquired in those countries must also be investigated and if it is discovered that the property were procured through proceeds of corruption, they should be confiscated on behalf of Nigeria, sell them and repatriate the money to Nigeria. The anti-corruption institutions also need to be further strengthened with human and material resources that can enable them to deliver on their mandate for the anti-graft war to bear good fruits.
Source: New Telegraph Newspaper.