‘Grand corruption’ under former President Jonathan unforgettable - Osinbajo’s aide

Nigerians have not forgotten the severe damage caused the economy by the rampant abuse of public trust and grand larceny that characterized the past administration according to Mr. Laolu Akande, a Senior Special Assistant on Media & Publicity to the Vice President.

Akande, who interacted with the press over the weekend, noted that those who are asking “our people to simply forget the blatant violation of public trust and the pillaging of the nation’s commonwealth witnessed in the past, are saying wittingly or otherwise that we should forget where the shoe actually pinched and pretend as if the social raping of the nation never occurred.”

Continuing Akande asked, “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 stated that it is mere wishful thinking to imagine that Nigerians would just forget all of these colossal atrocities in the management and disbursement of public funds.

Asked on the progress of prosecution, Akande said there are tonnes of corruption cases arising from the conduct of the past administration, adding that such pending cases in the courts would hopefully benefit with establishment of special courts for the speedy trial of corruption and other criminal cases.

He added that the presidency is beefing up the prosecution of such cases by planning to bring a number of senior lawyers with high integrity ratings to play active roles and lead the prosecution of some of the cases.

“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,” Akande noted.

Nigerians should be rest assured, he stated that the 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.”

He added that while there have been concerns about the delay in the pursuit of some of the cases, no one should underestimate the resolve of the Buhari administration to push all the cases to its logical conclusion.

According to him, “To those who have asked what has happened to the several instances of corruption that we have spoken about, we say wait and see.

“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,” Akande concluded.