Sagay accuses bank chiefs of aiding looters, insists on their prosecution

Chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption, Professor Itse Sagay (SAN) has said that the “monstrous epidemic of high profile corruption” in Nigeria would not be possible without the aid of bank chiefs.

He has therefore vowed that his committee will push for the prosecution of bank chiefs who conspire with looters to hide stolen funds, insisting that they must not go scot free in their corruption roles.

He said, “In my own little way, we are going to push for the prosecution of such bank chiefs. They must be prosecuted.”

Sagay, who has constantly maintained that the legislature, senior lawyers, especially Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SANs) are against corruption fight of the present administration added, “Some hostile and powerful judges are working against efforts to rid the country of corruption.

“There is a gang-up of powerful political, business and banking elite that is determined to frustrate the anti-corruption struggle.”

He said this in Lagos when he delivered a public lecture on the topic “The many afflictions of anti-corruption crusade in Nigeria,” an even organised by the Nigerian Society of International Law.

Describing the National Assembly as self-serving legislators who allocated N125 billion to themselves alone this year, when the United States President only earns $400,000 per annum, Sagay said it was clear that Nigerian legislators are in office for themselves and not for the populace.

According to him, a Nigerian senator earns over $1.7million. “Apart from a basic salary of N2.4million per month, they earn allowances, such as hardship (50 per cent of basic salary), newspaper allowance (50 per cent), wardrobe allowance (25 per cent), entertainment (30 per cent), recess (10 per cent) and leave (10 per cent), among others.

“The total allowances amounts to N29.5million per month and N3.2billion per annum,” he said.
Speaking further Sagay said, “Perhaps the most notorious example of the legislators’ resistance to the war against corruption is the rejection of the right of the executive to choose the persons who will spearhead that struggle.

“Not surprisingly, the National Assembly has not passed a single bill for the promotion of anti-corruption war since it commenced business in July 2015. The Whistle Blowers Protection Bill, the Proceeds of Crime Bill and the Special Criminal Court Bill remain in a virtual state of stagnation.

“What evidence do we need to establish the hostility of the eighth Assembly to the anti-corruption war?”

Read also: How NNPC, northern senators frustrate Senate probe of N10trn fuel subsidy scam

On the judiciary, he said corruption in that sector is “a national tragedy that should be avoided at all cost”.

He said that it was unimaginable that Nigerian judges could indulge in the crime of selling their judgments to the highest bidder for hundreds of millions of dollars.
He bemoaned the fact that the National Judicial Council (NJC) lacked a disciplinary capacity to deal with crimes of such gravity.

“That is why, tragically, we are now experiencing judges being tried in courts like common criminals. That is why the anti-corruption and security agencies have taken it upon themselves to continue from where the NJC stopped.

“It is a painful but necessary sacrifice we must make in order to cleanse and sanitise the system and to breathe new life into it,” Sagay said.

 

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