Alleged corruption: Our dilemma over Atiku – Prof Itse Sagay

Chairman, Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption, Prof Itse Sagay, has said that Nigerians would vote for President Muhammadu Buhari because of his integrity. According to him, the president needs another four years to consolidate on his achievements. He revealed the mind of the Buhari administration on the president’s strongest opponent in the 2019 election, Atiku Abubakar, saying government believes the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, is corrupt but lacks concrete evidence yet to prosecute him. “What is really delaying or suspending any action against him is a question of proof”, Sagay declared in this interview conducted by VINCENT KALU.

The presidential and the National Assembly elections campaigns kicked off on Sunday, what should be the campaign issues?

Campaigns should be driven by issues, and not by personal attacks and abuses, which we have experienced in the past.

The issues should be mainly social and infrastructural programmes; like education, infrastructure, roads, bridges all across the country, railways, electricity, health and of course corruption. Those are the issues that should be on the front burner.

Talking about corruption, the ruling APC will use it as its achievement, that it has been fighting graft, but the opposition PDP will carpet that, citing cases like Babachir Lawal grass cutting case, Oshiomhole’s alleged bribery allegation, etc….

When someone is pushed to the corner he has to say something. The PDP reveled in uncontrolled corruption for 16 years. Their members and members’ children looted and carted way virtually everything available in this country and rendered us bankrupt. Thank God they apologised, although I’m sure they are regretting it now, they knew what they did. This country was financially bankrupt by the time the APC took over and it was a very rough time.

Since APC took over, the whole issue of corruption has been transformed, you will not hear corruption in high places anymore; you will not hear ministers carting away billions of naira, you won’t hear civil servants building palaces all over the country. All those things are gone. Not only that, things like petroleum subsidy fraud all gone. That was costing us about N388 billion a year, and then there has been the recoveries, almost one trillion naira so far recovered from corrupt persons, in addition to prosecution going on.

People now know that it is a risk to steal government money, state money or even in the private sector. In banks and so on, quiet a number of bankers are on trial right now for the way they mismanaged and stole the deposits and resources of their customers.

Anybody can say anything, but you have to be either mentally retarded or extremely perverse, acting in bad faith for you to say that this government has not made a dramatic change in the area of corruption fight.

You are talking of PDP as the looters, the same people in PDP are in APC, and secondly, we never heard of the looters until the party was pushed out. Are you sure that if APC is sent packing we are not going to hear of more corruption?

Let us hear more. The more corrupt persons are fished out the better. If APC is pushed out, and whoever takes over should go with a big magnifying lens and look for those who have been corrupt and pick them out one by one. We have to do so if we are to end corruption. We must make sure that under no circumstances will it be safe to be corrupt whether under APC, PDP or SDP etc. Let it be a danger that a price will be paid and the person will have his days in court, apart from his assets seized. I support that view, let it be so.

When the Kano State House of Assembly was investigating the state governor, Ganduje over $5 million bribery allegation, you said that the Assembly lacks the power to do that. What of the DSS that is investigating the APC National Chairman, Oshiomhole over bribery allegations, does the security agency also lack the power to investigate the APC boss?

These are all EFCC matters, and of course if he is suspected of having taken bribe or in anywhere acquired money or other types of resources illegitimately, he is open to investigation by the EFCC, and not by DSS. DSS only comes in when there is a security aspect involved. Once security is involved, DSS should come in.

The speed with which the EFCC moved against former Ekiti state governor, Ayo Fayose, why didn’t it employ the same speed against former SGF, Lawal Babachir?

You cannot compare the two. Fayose was already on trial before he became governor for the second time for allegedly stealing money and said he used it to set up chicken farms and buying houses in Ibadan. 

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