Chidi Samuel || Prof Itse Sagay, the Chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption, PAC, has identified Senate President, Bukola Saraki and other members of the National Assembly as the enemies of the fight against corruption.
Prof. Sagay was responding to remarks made by the senate President, Bukola Saraki and the Speaker of the House, Yakubu Dogara slamming the anti-corruption efforts of President Muhammadu Buhari and the Economic and Financial Crime Commission, EFCC at the public presentation of a book written by Senator Dino Melaye in Abuja on Monday.
Saraki said at te book presentation, “I am convinced that why our fight against corruption has not yielded much success is that we have favoured punishment over deterence. We must fight corruption with sincerity, and not fight symptoms… unlike the five-minute sensationalism we have now. It must not be based on individuals but on institutions.”
Sagay maintained that from what Nigerians know, the National Assembly has worked against the anti-corruption efforts of President Buhari from day one because they have illegally amassed ”satanic sums of money” which could perverse the cause of Justice.
“My reaction to that is that in every endeavour being mounted against very powerful people, who have accumulated enough money, even more than the states, it is always going to be very tough. So, we will lose some (cases), learn from that and then improve.
“So, it is not showmanship. It is a tough struggle against the dark satanic forces that have run down the country’s economy and they are very powerful; so, it is a very tough struggle and we will carry on and we will get better and better with time.”
“In fact, the National Assembly has constituted itself into an opposition to the anti-corruption struggle. It has mounted a war against the anti-corruption struggle. It has decided to obstruct it at every stage,” he continued.
“For example, the bill for a special criminal court is not moving. And we saw the way they tried to stop Magu from being chairman of EFCC just because they found out he was effective, determined and incorruptible.
“So they really want to weaken it, destroy it and bring it to the level it was when Jonathan was in power. So, they’re enemies of the anti-corruption struggle, there’s no question about that.”
“What we are determined to do at any cost is to recover every stolen kobo, all the loot taken from Nigeria, 100 percent”