Mr. Okoi Obono- Obla, the senior special assistant on prosecution to president Muhammadu Buhari, on Sunday said that anybody who crosses the line in the fight against corruption will be crushed.
Obono-Obla, who spoke on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics, believes the return of President Muhammadu Buhari from his medical vacation will strengthen the government’s anti-corruption war.
“While the President was away, the war was still going on, the battle was still going on. So now that the Commander-in-Chief is back, maybe it’s going to rejig the war,” he said.
“And we are going to fight squarely, courageously and resolutely. So, anybody who crosses the line will be crushed.”
According to him, the signing of an extradition treaty and other agreements by President Buhari with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Thursday last week was an evidence of the government’s zero tolerance for corruption.
“Let’s talk about the treaty we entered into with the UAE, I can be very certain that in the next few weeks, we are going to have tangible results. We are going to repatriate what has been taken out of Nigeria to UAE and I have told you, it runs into hundreds of millions of dollars.
“Is that not an achievement? This country has never entered into an agreement with any other country to return what has been taken out of this country,” he said.
The presidential aide explained that government cannot fund projects with recovered looted fund without an approval of the National Assembly as enshrined in the Constitution.
He said, “We cannot spend those monies because we are a government that respects the rule of law, we are a government that respects constitutionalism.
“By virtue of the Constitution (Section 162), we cannot spend any money without going to the National Assembly for permission, for authority. And we must put it in the Appropriation Bill or what we call ‘budget estimates’ and then take it to the National Assembly for approval,”