*Urges Buhari to issue, sign Unexplained Wealth Order into law
![](https://thenigerialawyer.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Idrinstitute.jpg")
![](https://thenigerialawyer.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/2024.lidw_.jpg")
The chairman, Senate Committee on Army, Senator Mohammed Ali Ndume, on Saturday, in Ibadan, Oyo State capital said the adoption of a plea bargain in trials of public officers and politicians involved in financial improprieties provides incentives for corruption in Nigeria.
He said there was a critical need to put in place stronger legislation to tackle the endemic corruption, plaguing the nation.
Ndume, who was a guest lecturer during the 2021 distinguished leadership lecture organised by the University of Ibadan (UI) at the Trenchard Hall, noted the issue of a plea bargain in cases bordering on corruption “is an incentive to rather than deter future perpetrators of cases of this nature.”
According to him, “public policy should be a guide and in this case, matters of unexplained wealth should be excluded for the application of this plea bargain provision. The integrity of the justice system is very important and unscrupulous public officials should not exploit it.”
Delivering a lecture titled “Unexplained Wealth and The Fight Against Corruption in Nigeria”, Ndume contended that “fight against corruption is a fight for the nation and must start from the top to the bottom.”
He continued: “One should not be mistaken on how good it is to have riches, but toxic riches should be abhorred because it pollutes the society. It changes our good culture. It breeds injustice and impunity. Every citizen has a role to play in the battle against corruption.”
“It is my view that the need for President Muhammadu Buhari to urgently issue and sign Unexplained Wealth Order and prevail on the National Assembly to pass the Proceeds of Crime Bill in time regardless of the bickering on the management of the proceeds recovered.”
“Our crusade against this monster should start from the politicians, top public servants, civil servants down to local government staff. For the perpetrators, it is not difficult to identify the tendencies exhibited by these officers: acquiring landed property in and outside the country, having fat bank accounts, and buying expensive cars,” Ndume posited.
Earlier in his remark, the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ibadan, Professor Kayode Oyebode Adebowale said Africans are not as pathologically and incurably corrupt as they have often portrayed in the international media, noting that there are still honest Nigerians who have demonstrated virtues of integrity by returning found huge sums of money to their owners.
NIALS' Compendia Series: Your One-Stop Solution For Navigating Nigerian Laws (2004-2023)
Email: info@nials.edu.ng, tugomak@yahoo.co.uk, Contact: For Inquiry and information, kindly contact, NIALS Director of Marketing: +2348074128732, +2348100363602.
