The spokesman for President Muhammadu Buhari, Femi Adesina has said that the President failed to announce the names of those from whom funds and properties were recently recovered as a result of the legal implications and in order not to discourage others who might later return the loot to the government.
Adesina who spoke on Channels Television programme on Sunday, said that some of the recovered funds were in the country’s kitty while others were under interim forfeiture, asking: “do you go releasing the names of people from whom those funds were recovered but they are still interim forfeiture.
“At the end of the day, we will lose monies that would have been recoverable for the country but because the government has been precipitate in mentioning names, those funds will not be returned to the coffers again.
“What if at the end of the day the court decides that those people are not guilty and that the money should be returned, then you will have legal cases on your hands and that will constitute distraction to the government.
“I think it is better to err on the side of caution and that was why eventually the President agreed with those who said the names should be withheld.”
The President’s spokesman said that the government had high quotient of integrity and expressed confidence that Nigerians also knew the current administration had integrity.
He said that mentioning the names would discourage persons who had the intention of returning funds from bringing the funds forward, adding that the recovered funds could be used to make up for the deficit in the 2016 budget. The budget has over N2 trillion Naira deficit.
President Buhari had earlier promised to release the names of the persons from which funds were recovered but a released interim document containing the financial recoveries had no individual mentioned. [myad]
