If elected, Atiku says he’ll deal with looters differently from Buhari

The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, on Wednesday revealed how he will deal with looters if elected the next president of Nigeria, different from how the All Progressives Congress (APC) is going about it.

He said he will grant amnesty for looters in order to recover looted funds rather than prosecute them and spending years in legal battle with the looters.

APC National Chairman, Adams Oshiomhole, was recently quoted as suggesting that once anyone joins the ruling APC his sins are forgiven.

The statement clearly justified claims by some Nigerians that the moment an alleged corrupt politicians joins the ruling party, he becomes immune from prosecution.

But Atiku said through his amnesty to looters, he will recover looted funds from them and use the money to create jobs than allow a situation where looters apparently become corruption free the moment they join the party in power.

He stated this during a town hall meeting tagged “The Candidates,” where he featured with his running mate, Peter Obi.

According to the PDP presidential candidate, Turkey is an example of where such method was used to recover looted funds.

“Why not? I give you an example of Turkey. Turkey gave amnesty and all the money taken abroad were brought back.

“The government said when you bring the money back, you don’t need to pay taxes; invest in manufacturing, technology and real estate.

“And look at Turkey today, it is like any other European country.

“There was a panel set up when we came up (during the administration of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo). With that method, we recovered over $4 billion.

“If we are to go into prosecuting these people, we would have been prosecuting them by now and that money would have been denied the country,” Atiku said.

He also spoke on election rigging and described it as a form of corruption. To tame it he said he will set up an electoral fraud commission to handle such cases.

On how to curb corruption in public sector, Atiku said automation would help reduce corruption in the sector because technology would be used instead of  personal contacts, which according to him could provide an avenue for corruption.

“On the issue of corruption, we can use punitive and preventive measures. We should be able to introduce technology in the private and public sectors so that relationship between government and members of the public is not personal,” he said.

Regretting the delay in justice delivery in the country, he said, “There is too much delay in the judicial system. If we can shorten the delay so that justice can be done quickly, the better.

“The National Assembly and the judiciary should deliberate on the ways out.”

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Atiku, who boasted that he was the most experienced among the presidential candidates, nonetheless assured that he would accept defeat if the coming February 16 presidential election is free and fair and he lost.

Atiku’s amnesty to looters promise was supported by his running mate, Obi, who argued that adopting amnesty for looters would be more productive and less problematic because it would help the government recover looted funds instead of engaging in prosecution that might last for a long time.

“Is it not better to have an amnesty to bring money and use the money to create jobs than for looters to join another party and it becomes a safe haven and you can keep the money?” he said.

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