President Muhammadu Buhari’s government is believed to have set up a committee made up civil servants and security agencies to recover unreturned public assets from the political appointees who just left office.
It could be recalled that over the past weeks, President Muhammadu Buhari made it clear that his government intends to go after and reclaim as much of Nigeria’s stolen resources as possible. According to recent indications by the government, the quest for Nigeria’s looted funds will entail crossing borders and continents, to as far away as Switzerland and the United States of America.
However, the Buhari administration has also embarked on yet another quest that involves considerably less travel, one that is restricted to within our country’s borders: The recovery of government property from former government officials.
Sources close to the Presidency have revealed that a number of former government officials are still in possession of the vehicles, buildings, generator sets and other entitlements that came with their previous positions.
Despite vacating their offices almost three months ago, many are yet to return these government properties. That is why the government is believed to have set up a committee made up civil servants and security agencies to recover unreturned public assets from the political appointees who just left office.
During an informal chat with the media in Abuja, MalamGarba Shehu, Senior Special Assistant to the President (Media and Publicity) confirmed this situation.
“That is precisely the case,” he said. “Even here at the Villa, there are cars and other property belonging to the government which are yet to be returned.”
But, according to him, the Buhari administration would soon begin to demand for the return of these assets. He emphasised that the aim was not to embarrass anyone but to return properties to government.
“The properties belong to the Nigerian people,” he said. “We are not trying to humiliate anyone by asking them to return their cars or houses.”
When asked whether the state and local governments were facing similar challenges with retrieving government property from their predecessors, Malam Shehu said that he was not in a position to confirm or deny this. He added, however, that he would not be surprised if that was the case, as this attitude of holding on to government property even after leaving office must be a natural outcome of the culture of impunity that has prevailed in Nigeria over the past years of PDP rule.
“But change has come,” he said. “That is why we have to do things differently now.”
He reiterated President Buhari’s commitment to running an austere government that will save the Nigerian people millions in public funds.
“Imagine how much Nigeria will save by retrieving and re-using these government properties instead of purchasing new ones for new government officials,” he said.
