TheCable

The presidency says it is beefing up the prosecution of corruption cases in the past administration.

While interacting with journalists on Saturday, Laolu Akande, senior special assistant on media and publicity to the vice-president, said Nigerians will not forget the severe damage done to the economy by the immediate past administration.

He said: “Those who are asking Nigerians to simply forget the blatant violation of public trust and the pillaging of the nation’s commonwealth witnessed in the past are saying that they should forget where the shoe actually pinched them and pretend as if such events never occurred.

“How can we do that? We have a situation where a former first lady came out openly to claim over $171m found in her accounts and you think Nigerians will simply overlook that. You have a situation where hundreds of billions have been recovered including the discovery of $43m cash in an apartment in Ikoyi, and you think Nigerians will simply forget that?”

He said it is unlikely that Nigerians would forget the atrocities of the past administration in the management and disbursement of public funds.

Akande said there are many corruption cases arising from the conduct of the past administration, adding that the presidency will beef up the prosecution of such cases by recruiting senior lawyers.

He said: “We have a number of lawyers, senior lawyers, people with solid reputations, who have volunteered to assist in prosecuting the cases, and soon, the prosecuting agencies will be assigning specific cases to them.

“Nigerians should be rest assured, Buhari administration will not relent in the pursuit of those corruption cases because we know that the mass of our people are closely following these cases and expect that consequences would be meted out to those who have violated public trust.”

On the delay in the pursuit of some of the cases, the media aide explained that no one should underestimate the resolve of the Buhari administration to pursue all the cases to a logical conclusion.

Akande said: “Sometimes, the wheels of justice may be slow, as it is often said, but they grind exceedingly fine.

“Let Nigerians know that justice would be served in the end, and the world will see it. We have a president and vice president who will not take no for an answer on this matter.”