President Buhari ‘will withdraw national honours from corrupt recipients’

President Muhammadu Buhari is seeking ‘fearless’ judges to prosecute looters, Punch reports.

A source disclosed that that was one of the assignments Buhari gave to the Itse Sagay-led Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption, which he set up on Monday.

The source said, “We do not need to entertain any fear that the prosecution of corruption-related cases will not be fast enough because many of our courts are already weighed down by many cases.

“The truth of the matter is that not all judges will be considered to take up the cases of those who have stolen our commonwealth.

“As a matter of fact, one of the assignments the President gave the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption led by Prof. Sagay is to identify fearless and courageous judges that will handle the cases.

“The idea is to ensure that the judges who will handle the cases will not be just any judges. They must be those who will expedite actions on the cases and discharge their duties with courage.”

Punch also reports that Buhari is already considering withdrawing national honors from any individual found to have looted the nation’s treasury.

It was learnt that Buhari’s  position was that the nation should not be seen to be honoring any fraudulent person.

“The President will not hesitate to strip any corrupt person of national honour. Can you honour a person for milking the nation dry? It is irrelevant how long such persons have been bestowed with the national honours, they will be stripped of them,” the source said.

When contacted, the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, said it was reasonable that anybody found to be corrupt should be stripped of national honours.

Adesina however said such withdrawal of national honours would not be done until affected persons had been convicted by competent courts.

“Although it has not been considered, it is reasonable that those found guilty of corruption should be stripped of national honours bestowed on them. However, this will not be done before conviction,” Adesina said.