Just In : Buhari Releases Details of recovered loots, See Details

The Presidency says President
Muhammadu Buhari has not rescinded
his decision to publish the amounts
that have been recovered by his
administration from those who had
allegedly looted the nation’s treasury.
The Senior Special Assistant to the
President on Media and Publicity,
Garba Shehu, said this on Channels
Television’s Sunrise Daily on Monday,
May 30, a day after Nigeria marked
its Democracy Day.
The conversation, ‘Assessing Buhari’s
One Year In Office’ saw the
President’s spokesman addressing
several controversies generated by the
President’s national broadcast on
Sunday.
The President’s Democracy Day speech
had been widely criticised because it
failed to address the promise to
publish the amounts of funds that
have been recovered and from whom
they were recovered since the anti-
corruption campaign started.
The President had promised that the
information would be made public
when his administration clocks one
year, but Mr. Shehu said that “the
President did not at any time say he
was going to name names.”
Mr. Shehu expressed surprise that the
issue had generated so much negative
reactions from Nigerians, explaining
that the President did not cancel his
decision to announce the seizures that
have been made.
“What he (President) said was that
the Minister of Information will be
making a pronouncement on this, and
this is going to happen when work
resumes on Tuesday.

“This is likely going to be out by
Wednesday, or latest by Thursday. So
nothing has changed from the position
that there will be disclosure.
“The President has given the
authorisation that these assets that
have been taken back from those who
took from the treasury be put out
there. So my view is that nothing is
lost.”
Mr. Shehu said that the directive by
President is that “money on account”
in the CBN should be disclosed. He
explained that there were also many
accounts that have been frozen by
investigating agencies.
He named the Police, EFCC, ICPC and
the Office of the National Security
Adviser among those handling the
matter, so the Presidency expects
“that there will be a snapshot of
where they stand with the ongoing
investigation and the recoveries when
that disclosure is made.”
One Year Lost
Mr. Shehu disagreed with the view by
some Nigerians that the Buhari
administration had lost one year, as it
has failed to achieve some of what it
promised to achieve in the first year.
“The President had focus; he knew
what to do from the beginning. He
identified the problems of this
country, putting the security of the
country on top of the heap.
“He said repeatedly, ‘this country
must be secured, there must be peace
in this country for you to develop and
manage it very well.’
“And I think that he has done for this
country what others had failed to do
for four to five years in which they
had allowed problems like Boko Haram
to fester.
“A street protest in Maiduguri had
grown into a city-wide phenomenon, a
problem for neighbouring states and
all of the Lake Chad, in fact, a
global phenomenon with the linkage to
ISIS.
“President Buhari within one year is
about to bring Boko Haram to a
closure. This is massive,” he said.