President Buhari Signs Executive Order To Seize Assets Of Individuals Accused Of Corruption

President Muhammadu Buhari has on Thursday signed an Executive Order on the preservation of suspicious assets connected with corrupt individuals.

The Presidency revealed this in a statement posted on one of its verified Twitter handles, @AsoRock.

Buhari signed the document at the Council Chamber of the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

“President @MBuhari has just signed a Presidential Executive Order on the Preservation of Suspicious Assets Connected with Corruption at the Council Chambers, State House, Abuja,” the message read.

The statement read: "It has become necessary to re-tool our arsenal to be able to more effectively tackle corruption in Nigeria, & ensure that justice is not defeated/compromised by persons involved in corruption. It‘s in consequence of this that I have decided to issue Executive Order No 6 of 2018.

Executive Order No. 6 of 2018 will restrict dealings in suspicious assets that are subject to investigation or inquiry bordering on corruption, in order to preserve such assets from dissipation.

It will deprive alleged criminals of the proceeds of their illicit activities which can otherwise be employed to allure, pervert and/or intimidate the investigative and judicial processes for acts of terrorism, financing of terrorism, kidnapping sponsorship of ethnic or religious violence, economic sabotage & cases of economic and financial crimes, including acts contributing to the economic adversity of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and against the overall interest of justice and the welfare of the Nigerian State.

This is a good time, after three years in office, to review our achievements, and where necessary, re-appraise our anti-corruption strategy. Like I have said many times before, if Nigeria does not kill corruption, corruption will sooner or later kill Nigeria.

As a government we recognise that there are more grounds to cover in the war against corruption, and we are prepared to go all out and cut off any means that facilitate corruption and support its growth, while also strengthening our policies and institutions.

To put things in perspective, the total amount involved in some ongoing prosecutions of high-profile corruption related cases, from available records, is N595.4 billion" the statement read in part.