Declare oil theft international crime –Buhari

Ex-minister wants APC probed

From Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye and Dennis Mernyi, Abuja

PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari has called for the establishment of international infra­structure to fight corruption and repatriate assets that are stolen and moved across borders.

The president who spoke on the topic: “Tackling corruption together: A conference for civil society, business and government leaders”, appealed to the global community to declare oil theft international crime simi­lar to blood diamond, saying that the menace put at over 150,000 barrels per day, was a criminal enterprise involving internal and external perpetrators.

“Opaque and murky as these illegal trans­actions may be, they are certainly traceable and can be acted upon, if all governments show the required political will. This will has been the missing link in the internation­al efforts hitherto. Now in London, we can turn a new page by creating a multi-state and multi-stakeholder partnership to address this menace.

“We, therefore, call on the international community to designate oil theft as an inter­national crime similar to the trade in ‘blood diamonds’, as it constitutes an imminent and credible threat to the economy and stability of oil-producing countries like Nigeria,” he pleaded.

Buhari also described as unfortunate, tedious, time consuming and costly the repa­triation of looted funds stashed in different parts of the world, calling for repatriation of funds without conditions.

While admitting that corruption has become a hydra-headed monster and a can­kerworm that undermines the fabric of all societies and does not differentiate between developed and developing countries, he nev­ertheless vowed that his administration in the fight against corruption would continue to ruffle feathers.

Meanwhile, Dr. Abubakar Sulaiman, former minister of Economic Planning under former president Goodluck Jonathan accused Buhari’s All Progressives Congress (APC) government of selectively persecuting Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) former gov­ernment officials, “as if they were the ones who invented corruption in Nigeria.”

He alleged that there were also corrupt officials in the Buhari government but were not being haunted like the PDP government officials who served under former president Jonathan.

According to him, the 2015 presidential elections money for which the anti-graft agencies were prosecuting former govern­ment officials, were donated by private indi­viduals and corporate organisations and not government money, and wondered why only the opposition members were being probed.

He insisted that APC too spent billions of naira on the presidential elections and que­ried why the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Com­mission (ICPC) the Police and DSS were not going after their members for prosecution.

“The government of former President Jonathan did not invent corruption in the country. The present government of Presi­dent Buhari is also full of corrupt officials, no exception. So, if the anti-graft agencies want to do a thorough job, they should go after the individuals and corporate organisations who donated or contributed money towards elec­tion campaigns and not the party stalwarts who were only sent to use the money for the election,” he stated.