Senate Wants Sanctions On Corruption Beneficiaries
- Targets spouses, children, siblings, parents
BY EDMOND ODOK – For all beneficiaries of corruption and its massive proceeds, such as spouses, children, siblings, and parents, a law to punish them alongside major actors in the criminal activities will serve as a deterrent in the country.
This is the submission by the Senate Committee Chairman on Special Duties, Senator Yusuf Abubakar Yusuf while urging the Federal Government to ensure all beneficiaries of corruption are no longer spared and allowed to enjoy their loots in peace.
The All Progressives Congress (APC) lawmaker, representing Taraba Central Senatorial District, said the Nigerian Senate may soon tinker with such comprehensive legislation to make corruption unattractive to all and sundry.
Speaking against the backdrop of current revelations incriminating Abba Kyari, Deputy Commissioner of Police and suspended head of Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Intelligence Response Team, Senator Yusuf said such a law has become urgent and important, even as he proposed the establishment of an agency tasked with confiscating proceeds of corruption from sentenced and jailed persons.
Senator Yusuf told journalists in Abuja that; “I am really very concerned about the future of the country in the sense that many of us are joking and playing with the extent to which corruption has entered into the fabrics of our polity.
“President Muhammadu Buhari has warned us that if we do not fight corruption, corruption would definitely not only fight us but kill us a nation. Corruption, unfortunately, is in every sector of the economy.
“Some people say drug peddling is not corruption, but it is actually. It is very disturbing when you consider how far corruption had destroyed the country in all aspects, including the National Assembly, civil service, and in the academia.”
On the developing story around the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) and some of its senior officers, the Senator said; “There is an allegation that one of our topmost police officers in the country, DCP Abba Kyari, who had been arrested, was conniving with drug peddlers. His spouse, children, siblings, and parents are all beneficiaries of corruption.
“So, while the law is criminalising an individual for corruption, and he is in jail, his wife, children, siblings, and parents would all be enjoying the fruits of corruption.”
Admitting that “it is possible for someone to be corrupt and others may not know”, the lawmaker said, by and large, every corruption has its own beneficiaries and they should all be liable when the principal actors have been convicted by the courts.
Therefore, he submitted thus; “The law should also be extended to all the beneficiaries of corruption, especially the criminal aspect. There are countries where corrupt persons are jailed for as much as 100 years. There are nations that have the death penalty as punishment for corrupt people.”
