President Buhari-"Prosecution of looters of Public Funds is Imminent;Abdulsalami,Others-"Buhari should adhere to Rule of Law.

President Muhammadu Buhari has declared that the prosecution of persons who have stolen public funds would begin in a matter of weeks.

This is just as the National Peace Committee headed by former military head of state, General Abdulsalami Abubakar (rtd) cautioned the president to adhere to the rule of law in his war against graft.

The committee also dispelled speculations that former President Goodluck Jonathan had approached it to intervene as Buhari goes after corrupt officials under Jonathan’s government.

Bishop Matthew Kukah, said his group was at the Presidential Villa to update Buhari on the committee’s activities.

When asked to confirm reports that Jonathan sought the intervention of the committee, Kukah replied: “Anybody is free to come to our committee but President Jonathan never by telephone or another means talked to the committee. We went to see him, but that was after we had already seen members of political parties, members of civil society, and we plan to see the speaker because we couldn't see him yesterday.

“This is a planned series of intervention essentially just to hear out everybody and I think the good news is that Nigerians are committed to a new nation, they are committed to ensuring that the gains and blessings God has given us come to fruition.”

Asked why it had become necessary for the committee to intervene, he said: “This is not an intervention, it is not a hearing out process. When we had the elections, it was like a wedding, now the reality of government is the marriage and people need to be encouraged.

“We need to reaffirm that this is our country and the only thing we can collectively be opposed to is injustice, iniquity, corruption and in that regard we all had one single conversation.”

He said Buhari had also reaffirmed the need for the committee to continue and that the international community also welcomed the contributions of the committee.

“Essentially we are not policing, but when the need arises for us to help to build confidence and in the process build bridges,” he said.
He observed that the committee did not think that the war against corruption was heating up the polity.

“In our conversation with President Jonathan and members of the parties, I don’t think any Nigerian was in favour of corruption or was against the president’s (Buhari) commitment to ensuring that we turn a new leaf,” he added.

source:ThisDaylive