Sen. President Bukola Saraki, Olisa Metuh, Femi Fani-Kayode, and other alleged sleazeballs in court might not be convicted—or acquitted—until November, according to Prof. Itse Sagay, chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption.
“Within the next six months, a series of cases would be concluded. I don’t want to use the word convicted—because a case could be terminated with an acquittal,” Sagay said in an interview he granted Channels Television Sunday night.
He was responding to questions many Nigerians are asking about the inability of the federal government to secure convictions in the on-going top=of=the-shelf corruption trials of politicians and public servants.
“It is not quite correct to say no politician has ever been convicted,” the law professor said. “This governmen6 is just one year in the saddle. And if you have been following, there’s a rigorous and dynamic prosecution of virtually a;; the cases of corruption the EFCC has come across.”
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He said there are no fewer than 20 different cases the President Muhammadu Buhari administration is prosecuting now, and that the government has concluded the prosecution, and the defence have been opened.
Among the cases are Saraki’s at the CCT, ex-NSA Sambo Dasuki’s, PDP,s ex Publicity Secretary Metuh’s, former Chief of Defence Alex Badeh’s, Fani-Kayode’s, and others.
Because most of the suspects are PDP members—or its sympathisers—many have concluded the APC government is out to mow down the opposition, sparing other corrupt elements in the ruling party.
Former Rivers Gov. Rotimi Amaechi, for instance, was said to have been indicted by a judicial commission his successor PDP Gov. Nyesom Wike set up to probe Amaechi’s spending while in office. And the EFCC has yet to invite.
But Sagay said the panel has no credibility.
He further urged any Nigerian that has evidence of corruption against any APC member to come forward. “Be a whistleblower and then investigations could start.
The March and April results of the Government Advancement Initiative of Nigeria polls scored Buhari low for not securing convictions in his anti-corruption campaign—what many had thought was the president’s strong suit.
And if Nigerians will have to wait six months more before they can see corruption suspects convicted and jailed, Buhari’s rating may probably dip further.