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President Muhammadu Buhari |
President Muhammadu Buhari said Tuesday in Abuja that the prosecution of persons who have stolen national resources will begin in a matter of weeks.
Speaking at a meeting with members of the
National Peace Committee led by Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar in the Presidential
Villa, President Buhari declared that his administration was irrevocably
committed to doing all within its powers to break the vicious cycle of
corruption, unemployment and insecurity in Nigeria.
“Nigeria has to break this vicious cycle
before we can make progress,” the President said, adding that his
administration was diligently getting facts and figures pertaining to the
nation’s stolen funds, before proceeding to the prosecution of identified
culprits.
President Buhari told General Abdulsalami and
members of his committee that the Federal Government, under his leadership,
will not only ask for the return of stolen funds that have been stashed in
foreign banks, but will also ensure that those who stole the funds are put on
trial in Nigeria.
The President also said that as part of its
actions to address the national problems it inherited, his administration was
reorganising Nigeria’s revenue generating institutions.
The President explained that a single
treasury account had been established for all Federal revenue to ensure greater
probity, transparency and accountability in the collection, disbursement and
utilisation of national funds.
“We have really degenerated as a country. Our
national institutions, including the military, which did wonderfully on foreign
missions in the past, have been compromised. But we are doing something about
it. The military is now retraining and morale has been resuscitated.
“As Petroleum Minister under Gen. Olusegun
Obasanjo in the 1970s, I could not travel abroad until I had taken a memo to
the Federal Executive Council asking for estacode. Now, everybody does what he
wants.
“That is why security-wise and economically,
we’re in trouble,” President Buhari told his guests, adding that those who have
stolen the national wealth “will be in court in a matter of weeks and Nigerians
will know those who have short-changed them.”
Gen. Abubakar and members of his committee
urged the Federal Government to be guided by the rule of law in its fight
against corruption.
Members of the National Peace Committee who
accompanied Gen Abubakar on the visit were Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah, His
Eminence, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar, the Sultan of Sokoto, Cardinal John Onaiyekan,
Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, President of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN)
and Archbishop Nicholas Okoh, Primate of the Anglican Church of Nigeria.
Others were Justice Rose Ukeje (rtd), Prof
Ameze Guobadia, Vanguard Newspaper Publisher, Sam Amuka, Dame Priscilla Kuye,
Senator Ben Obi, Dr. Yunusa Tanko, and Dr Arthur-Martin Aginam.
The National Peace Committee, formed before
the 2015 general elections, was granted permission by the President to
transform to a National Peace Council.
It noted that despite all
efforts by the government however, there has been constant level of
arbitrariness, whereby electricity consumers are charged extortionate rates,
fixed rate, based on the use of the billed meters installed by the then Power
Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN).
The
Senate therefore directed NERC to introduce regulations that will mandate the
DISCOs to discontinue the practice of making consumers pay for meters, poles
and transformers which by law are property of the DISCOs.
It added
that in the instances where the consumers provide the items, they should give
notice of the provision to the DISCOs and should be entitled to recover their
expenses from subsequent consumption of electricity.
In the
same vein, the Senate resolved that NERC should ask the DISCOs to discontinue
the practice of compulsory bulk metering of villages and communities in the
rural areas.
This,
they argued was because the consumers should have the right to elect to be part
of bulk metering scheme or not.
The
Senate also asked NERC to break the DISCOs monopoly over the sales of
electricity meters so as to give opportunity to consumers to purchase them
either from the DISCOs or from any other source subject to the regulation and
specification of NERC.
The
Senate President said a public hearing on power would be held by the senate to
look at ways of moving the sector forward.
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