Posted on: 10:09 Thu, 08 Dec 2016

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has answered questions on when and if the EFCC would arrest former President Goodluck Jonathan over corruption allegations.



Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has said the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has the been empowered by law to make to their work without undue interference. He said it is left for the anti-graft agency to decide whether to move against former President Goodluck Jonathan, as he added that the Buhari administration was not in the business of arresting people anyhow.

The vice president, according to a statement by his spokesman, Mr. Laolu Akande, spoke on Friday in Houston, Texas in the United States at a meeting he had with Nigerians based in the US.

He also talked about the rampaging disaster created by bloodthirsty herdsmen killing and burning homes in different parts of the country. Osinbajo also answered questions on arrest of judges and the anti-corruption war of the government.

The statement read, “Answering a question from the Internet on when former President Jonathan would be arrested, Osinbajo pointed out that the Buhari administration was not in the business of arresting people anyhow.

“He said all the Buhari administration did was to empower the security agencies and the anti-corruption agencies to do their jobs, without the administration trying to teleguide (monitor) them,”
Osinbajo noted that Buhari's government is not fighting corruption based on ethnic, hasty or premeditated grounds.

“Corruption is not an ethnic thing, there is an equal representation in the stealing as no one operates with his or her ethnic group alone, the culprits are in every case seen so far, united by greed to steal and not by ethnic or religious interest.” he added.

According to him, as much as $15bn had been stolen from the national coffers by individuals. He said no responsible government would wave that aside so as not to offend people.

While commenting on the arrest of some judges in the country, Osinbajo said the Federal Government was only exercising its executive function in attempting to check excesses.

He said impunity could be dangerous in any sector. He said due process was followed as the judges were released about 24 hours after their arrest, having written their statements.

Osinbajo also disclosed that security agencies have arrested about 800 suspected herdsmen across the country in relation to violent attacks on innocent people.

He said, “The President has given firm instructions to the security agencies to arrest not only herdsmen, who are attacking communities anywhere in the country, but anyone of them or anyone at all in possession of firearms.

“There are about 800 of suspected violent herdsmen in the country who are currently in custody,” he said.

Osinbajo said further that “the Federal Government is currently working to introduce community policing, that would be in line with the constitution."

He attributed the current recession to the loss of about 60 per cent of government revenue due to pipeline vandalism and endemic corruption in the country.