Former President, Goodluck Ebele Jonathan
The Chairman, Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption,
Prof. Itse Sagay, has faulted a former Minister of National Planning,
Dr. Abubakar Suleiman, regarding the culpability of former President
Goodluck Jonathan in the current anti-corruption cases, Punch reports.
Sagay said the former president could be held culpable for corruption
charges on many grounds.
This is coming after the spokesperson for the Peoples Democratic
Party Ministers’ Forum, had said in a recent interview that Jonathan
could not be held liable because no stolen funds had been traced to the
ex-president’s personal bank accounts.
The ex-minister had said, “All these issues of corruption under
Jonathan happened between March and April last year. It was purely an
election issue. Nobody has traced any money to Jonathan’s account up
till now, but money was traced to Abacha’s accounts.”
However, Sagay faulted that claim. He said in a recent interview
that the ex-President could be held liable if it could be established
that Jonathan made illegal approvals for funds to be paid into other
people’s accounts.
Sagay said: “Only the EFCC can say if Jonathan is culpable.
Guilt in criminal law requires proof and there must be evidence. So,
what I would say is that if a case can be established against Jonathan
as regards public funds, then he has a case to answer.
“I don’t know if that has been done. I have not seen anybody
who says he was given the money by Jonathan himself although one can say
that instructions to any institution that public funds should be
released to other people for purposes, which those funds were not
designated, is in itself a criminal affair.
“So, it is not only when money is found on you that you have a
case to answer. If you are a person in authority, and you issue
directives to people under you, who are keeping public funds like the
Governor of the Central Bank, and an illegal order is given to him for
the release of funds, that, in itself, will raise a case for Jonathan to
answer if in fact he issued such an order.”
Another SAN, Mr. Yusuf Ali, said it was too early to exonerate
anyone as investigations into corruption that took place under the
previous administration were still ongoing.
Ali stated, “The whole process is ongoing. Investigations are
still ongoing. Until somebody is convicted, nothing bad can be said
about such person. I believe when we get to the bridge, we shall cross
it.
“There is no point for anybody to be excited or be happy for
now until the whole story is in the open. Investigations are ongoing.” he said.
No comments:
Post a Comment