The Chairman of Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption (PACAC), Itse Sagay has accused the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) of stealing over N1.35 trillion between 2006 and 2013.
Sagay made the allegation on Monday in Abuja while delivering a paper at the Conference on Promoting International Co-operation in Combating Illicit Financial Flow and Enhancing Asset Recovery to Foster Sustainable Development. He disclosed that the funds were stolen when Chief Olusegun Oabasanjo, Late Musa Yar'Adua and Goodluck Jonathan were Presidents.
While alluding to a study recently conducted, Sagay stated that “more mind-boggling were the trillions squandered in fuel subsidy scam, billions in arms purchase scam, hundreds of millions of dollars taken from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation by the former minister to bribe election officials in 2015, the list goes on.”
He lamented the uncooperative posture of some countries which serve as safe haven for these stolen funds, stressing that when such funds are not returned, it could make it impossible for Nigeria to meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which was fashioned by the United Nations to engender rapid global development “Most of the financial assets stolen in Nigeria are taken out of the country as part of the illicit financial outflow.
The immediate impact is that Nigeria is deprived of the capacity to realize its Sustainable Development Goals of the UN officially known as transforming our world.
“It’s hard for any country to achieve that when it has looted 90 per cent of its resources and this hemorrhage is leaving our shores; under-developed world, to the developed world, developing them more, while we are retarding. The annual flow of criminal activities is estimated at between $1 and $1.6 trillion and half of this comes from developing countries like ours.”
Sagay also decried the number of abandoned projects in the country blamed the development on corruption. He however assured that the current administration will not relent in its anti-graft campaign.
