President Muhammadu Buhari, has urged persons or
organisations with any evidence of corrupt practices against members of
his administration to come forward with such evidences to him for prompt
action.
The president gave the challenge at a town hall meeting tagged:
‘The Candidates’ organised by the MacArthur Foundation, in collaboration
with NTA and DARIA Media in Abuja on Wednesday night.
President Buhari was fielding questions on the
allegations that the government’s anti-corruption crusade was skewed
against a section of Nigerians, and that members of the governing All
Progressives Congress (APC) with questionable credentials were being
protected by the government.
The Moderator of the programme Kadaria Ahmed,
specifically cited the former Secretary to the Government of the
Federation Babachir Lawal, who was relieved of his appointment over
allegations of corrupt practices, but was not prosecuted, instead he had
been seen campaigning for the president.
However, President Buhari said: “That
is not fair criticism of the government. I do not think there is
anybody that is being pointed out as corrupt in this dispensation which
we looked the other direction.
“I told you why I have to be careful; the
public should help us, if there are strong allegations that are backed
up with evidences, bank accounts, names of companies floated and
contracts awarded.
“Then we will take them before the courts
through the EFCC and ICPC; and we have to trust the system and allow
them to complete investigation.
“If we just take people in as we did
during the military and lock them up, the present democracy a multi
party democracy does not approve of that.
“If you accuse any person, you have to
provide evidence in court for him to be prosecuted. So, if there is
strong allegations, the government may decide to ask people to go, like
in the case of the former Secretary to the Government of the Federation,
we asked him to go.
“The matter is already before the
EFCC and I believe that a directive has been issued to charge him and
all persons who have cases before the EFCC.’’
He reiterated that his administration would
not tolerate any form of corrupt practices from any quarters, saying
those making allegations should be able to provide evidence why the
accused should be prosecuted.
On whether he will accept the outcome of the
forthcoming general elections, President Buhari said even though he was
optimistic of winning the election, he would gladly accept the results.
The president narrated how he accepted the
results of previous elections in 2003, 2007 and 2011 even after
challenging the results at the relevant courts.
He said: “It won’t be the first time I will lose election.
“I tried 2003 and I was in Court for 13
months, 2007. I was in court for 18 months in 2011 and went up to the
Supreme Court. I sat down and said; `God Dey’, and for the fourth time,
God and technology helped me.’