We’ve Not Started The War On Graft Yet, Says Buhari

Despite criticism in some quarters about the genuineness of the fight against corruption by his administration, a defiant President Muhammadu Buhari has said he remained committed to the war.

In fact, he declared that the fight had yet to begun, meaning he was not ready to slow down or be distracted.

Speaking on the British Broadcasting Corporation, (BBC) television service monitored last night in Abuja, Buhari who is currently on a short vacation denied insinuations that his fight against corruption was targeted against only the opposition, challenging those with credible evidence against any member of his All Progressives Congress (APC) involved in corruption to come out with such.

The President’s comment is coming barely 24 hours after Vice President Yemi Osinbajo said wealthy and influential Nigerians were putting pressure on the President to slow down his campaign against corruption.

Even though the President admitted that government officials who looted the public treasury have started returning the monies they stole, but he did disclose the exact amount so far returned, noting that it would be unfair to so at this stage.

According to him: “We haven’t done much yet, because we are still waiting for documentation, so that those who try to be too clever or too hard will be prosecuted.

“But to do so successfully, we have to produce evidence and this is the evidence we have been collecting. It is not easy, especially in the petroleum industry, where a number of people are cooperating.

“They are literally declaring their assets and they are prepared to return it, so it will be unfair to comment before they deal is done.”

Asked if he agreed to grant amnesty to the looters who have returned their monies, Buhari remained non-committal, saying he had to depend on the experts’ advice to take decision on that, saying: “I have to depend on the reports of the recommendations of the officials I asked to do this job.”

Responding to criticism that he is only after political opposition figures, the President said making wild allegations had become a past time or a hobby among Nigerian critics of his administration.

He added: “If they can provide evidence. If they can give an idea that so, so member of my cabinet or party have connived and stolen so much. If I don’t react to credible information, then they can blame me.

“But they can’t just open their mouth and said that I am being selective. Selective how?”