President Muhammadu Buhari has given reasons the trial of those alleged to have stolen government funds in the past has not begun.
Buhari said his administration is committed to obeying democratic principles as enshrined in the constitution, which requires that they should be tried in competent courts by presenting evidence to back up allegations.
Speaking at an audience with a delegation from Foursquare Gospel Church at the Presidential Villa yesterday, Buhari affirmed that his administration will give full regard to due process and the rule of law in the prosecution of its war against corruption, adding that stolen funds recovery will be within the ambit of the law.
“Under military rule, people could be arrested and held on the basis of suspicion, but, in a true democracy, anyone accused of an offence must be presumed innocent till pronounced guilty by a court of law,” the president noted.
President Buhari also congratulated Foursquare Church in Nigeria on its 60th convention, which was concluded on Sunday.
In his remarks, the General Overseer of the church, Rev. Felix Meduoye lauded the Buhari administration for its positive strides in the war against corruption and insurgency.
In a related development, Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, dismissed as a contrived distraction, an alleged fraud in the Treasury Single Account (TSA) and the rumoured diversion of funds to bankroll elections in Bayelsa and Kogi States.
In a statement isued in Abuja yesterday, Mohammed said if those behind the accusation had allowed themselves some measure of honesty, they would have realised that there has not and there will be no such impunity under Buhari administration.
‘’It is understandable that the psyche of those who are making the frivolous allegations concerning the TSA has been badly affected by the impunity that permeated the country under the immediate past administration; when unappropriated funds were freely used to finance elections and the public till was seen as an extension of personal piggy banks.
‘’But the lies that have been wilfully disseminated by scandalmongers over the TSA cannot and will not fly, because it was precisely to put an end to such impunity that Nigerians voted massively for Buhari, who has an unblemished reputation for integrity, due process, transparency and the rule of law,’’ he said.
sun news
