There Is Need For Special Court To Try Corruption Cases, Says Buhari

*Says “I’ll Not Stay a Day Longer in Office Than Expected”

President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday vowed not to stay in office a day longer than expected.

He also promised to abide by the constitution and the oath he took when he was being sworn in and expressed the desire to hand over a more prosperous country to his successor in 2023.

The President spoke during an interview he granted to the Nigerian Television Authority.

He said the All Progressives Congress would do everything possible to remain in power for a long time. Buhari said everything possible was being done to make the party formidable.

He said, “We are doing all we can to make the APC be in power for as long as possible.”

On the nation’s economy, Buhari expressed displeasure with its performance, saying its low performance had been of concern to him.

He also justified his hard stance against those causing crisis across the country stressing that no serious government would watch the state plunged into chaos.

The President emphasised that his administration was doing everything possible to improve the economy.

According to him, one of the steps taken so far was reaching out to the international community to allow their multinational firms to come to Nigeria and establish their presence by employing Nigerians through which the economy will pick up.

The President also said his administration “is poised to diversify the economy from reliance on oil and gas.”

On corruption, President Buhari said it was high time special courts were established in the country especially to try several corruption cases currently stuck in conventional courts.

“You have instances of cases lasting for as long as 10 years before they are determined and in some cases judges handling the cases may die. But if there are special courts, there will be a time frame to conclude the corruption cases and not dragging on unnecessarily,” he said.

The President reiterated his warning to those engaged in violent and criminal acts in different parts of the country, saying his administration would not sit back and watch the nation destroyed by anarchists.

He added that much more than he had threatened earlier, his administration would do to those bent on perpetrating confusion in the land.

On what he meant that his administration would speak to criminals in the language they understand, he referred to recent incidents in different parts of the country, including recent activities of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), banditry, kidnapping and terrorism, as well as the trails of the #ENDSARS protest as some of the examples of activities targeted at leading the country into chaos.

Buhari said “how can you go to a police station, kill the policemen that are there, loot the amoury and burn the place? What do you want to achieve? Then how can government sit aside and allow this confusion to be perpetrated? All they want is confusion and no government can allow confusion.

“Look at the #ENDSARS incident in Lagos. The previous governor of Lagos bought 200 buses to complement transportation in Lagos and he built a complex for railway, but they went and burnt them.

“What I hope to do is to arrest them, try them, give them very bad publicity and jail them so that people will know that if they misbehave, they will not get away with it.

He also said those accusing him of double standards in dealing with criminalities in different parts of the country had been unfair to him, saying those who make the allegation had not bothered to find out what has been done in states affected by banditry.

Buhari said: “They are being unfair. They should go and ask the governors of Sokoto, Zamfara and Katsina and find out how we have been deploying the police and the military to deal with the bandits. We are not sparing anybody. But Nigeria is vast and there are a lot of forests.”

He also said elected officials across the country would be embarrassed if an investigation is launched to uncover the sources of their current assets.

President Muhammadu Buhari also stressed the need for the establishment of special courts to try corruption cases in Nigeria.

The President who spoke while answering questions from the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) reporter on Friday night said it was high time special courts were established in the country especially to try several corruption cases currently in conventional courts.

His words: “You have instances of cases lasting for as long as 10 years before they are determined and in some cases judges handling the cases may die. But if there are special courts, there will be a time frame to conclude the corruption cases and not dragging on unnecessarily”.