The Presidency has ruled out the idea of making public the cash recovered from former public officers under probe by anti-graft agencies, saying that it t will be used as evidence against them in court.
Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu, said that such a move would be impossible for now.
According to him, the money recovered is in the coffers of the Central Bank of Nigeria.
He said, “the issue of how much has been returned has been there. The money retrieved has to be used as evidence in court. The President said two things; we will recover and we will prosecute. So, as it is now, you don’t go and bring all these billions returned out.
“I am aware that there is an account with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) where some of these funds are being kept and are evidence for a judge to see. It is not for public display. I think that is the challenge we have at the moment.”
Shehu said Vice President Yemi Osinbajo will soon hit the road travelling around the country to address town hall meetings, explaining government policies and actions. The town hall meetings, he said, will hold in the first instance at zonal levels before going down to state capitals.
on the delay in the reconstituting government agencies, Shehu said President Buhari wanted to be fair to every chief executive of government agencies. “If he wanted to fire people on assumption of office, he would have done it and would not have violated any rule. But he decided to give everyone a chance to see whether they would imbibe the change mantra, and be prepared to come along.”
He added, “A lot of people had expected jobs by way of key appointments in boards, ministries and parastatals. That has been held back by the fact that the government and the president have promised a major restructuring of the executive. You know he has reduced the ministries to about 24 from 42. That will not go without concomitant challenges on the existing parastatals and agencies which obviously have to be modified to fit into shape and fix into the existing ministerial structure,” Malam Shehu told newsmen in Abuja at the weekend.
He said with the passage of the budget and the subsequent endorsement by President Muhammadu Buhari, Nigerians would begin to feel the positive impact of government’s programmes and activities as money would be released into the economy.
On the purported secret recruitments in federal government agencies, he urged Nigerians to wait for the outcome of the investigation launched into the issue by the National Assembly.
“I have been approached by a number of people who say can you give me a note to so so, so agency? A lot is happening in this country and I keep saying that Buhari’s government is not a government of notes. I guess that whoever is found doing that would get himself in trouble,” he said.
