The Federal Government says it will not be intimidated by any person(s) or group(s) to stop revealing the names of those who allegedly looted the nation’s treasury.
Minister of Information, Mr Lai Mohammed, said this in Kwara State during a condolence visit to the state government over the recent bank robbery in Offa.
He told reporters in the state on Sunday that the government would release another batch of alleged looters’ list soon and was not bothered by any litigation threat whatsoever.
“We want to make it clear that no amount of intimidation from any side will prevent the government from releasing the next batch of looters’ list,” Mohammed stated.
“Honestly, what you have seen so far is the tip of the iceberg. When the next list comes out, you will see that many people that you did not suspect also partook in this national looting,” he added.
The minister, however, advised those mentioned on the previous lists and criticising the government to re-examine themselves, saying the government was very confident of the evidence it has before publishing the lists.
The previous lists of alleged looters published on March 30 and April 1 respectively had sparked criticism among Nigerians, as well as blame games between the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
In the first list, the PDP National Chairman, Mr Uche Secondus, was alleged to have received the sum of N200million from the office of the National Security Adviser (NSA) on February 19, 2015.
Secondus, who has since denied the allegation, demanded a retraction of the list, a public apology, and the sum of N1.5billion as compensation.
He had also threatened to sue Mohammed if his demands were not met before a stipulated period of time.
Having failed to meet the demand, the PDP National Chairman made good his threat on Friday last week and filed a suit at the Port Harcourt High Court in Rivers State against the minister for defamation of character.
In his reaction, Mohammed maintained that he was not disturbed by the suit and that no amount of threat would prevent the government from releasing more names of alleged looters.
According to him, “Courts are for the accused and the accuser; for the rich and for the poor; for the government and for the people. So, anybody saying he’s going to court, I don’t think that should really frighten anybody.”
The minister further stressed the need to understand the context from which the alleged looters’ list was released.
He said it was primarily because Vice President Yemi Osinbajo was challenged by the PDP over the statement he made that a few days to handover in 2015, about N100billion was allegedly shared by members of the opposition party.
