Prominent among the Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SANs) have told President Goodluck Jonathan to restrain his aides from engaging in last minute looting of public treasury and properties while they advised the President-elect, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, to start issuing public statements to that effect.A legal luminary, Chief Ladi Williams, said he has been inundated with unconfirmed reports of how oil blocks are being deliberately awarded and backdated speedily and called on President Jonathan to rise up to the occasion by checkmating his aides.
“President Jonathan has a big role to play here. From the little I know of him, he is a decent man but he knows the people that are capable of doing such among his aides. He should do everything possible to restrain them from putting their hands into public funds. He should immediately issue a directive to all his aides to eschew the temptation of engaging in last minute looting of both public funds and properties.
“The President-elect, even though he has not been sworn in, can begin to make public statement warning all the heads of ministries and parastatals against engaging in unholy acts this last minute. He should also warn all the banks against being used to carry out any transactions that are untoward.
“Something similar happened in the United States and the erring banks were seriously dealt with. He should make it known that any banks that engage in such transaction will be brought to book. If he does this, he would have drawn the battle line. When he is eventually sworn in, he should set up a high power judicial panel that will prosecute the offenders.”
Chief Niyi Akintola regretted that it has become a tradition for outgoing government in the country to embark on spending spree, noting that reports across the country currently lend credence to such unpatriotic attitude.
Sourced from The Nation
