Buhari In A Closed-door Meeting With Members Of The National Peace Committee; Says Corrupt Nigerians Will Go On Trial In A Few Weeks

The National Peace Committee for the 2015 General Elections, headed by former Head of State General Abdusalami Abubakar (rtd), has held a closed-door meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari. At the meeting which held at the Presidential Villa in Abuja today, talks were focused on how to

sustain the peace that Nigeria had got after the general election. The committee had brokered the signing of the peace accords between President Buhari and his predecessor, Dr Goodluck Jonathan, ahead of the March 28 presidential poll.

Addressing reporters after the meeting, which lasted for about an hour, the catholic Bishop of Sokoto State, Bishop Matthew Kukah, said the peace committee had a role to still nurture the peace which Nigeria had got following the general elections.

The meeting is coming barely three days after former President Jonathan, had paid a secret visit to President Buhari at the residence.

President Buhari told the Peace Committee that the Federal Government will ask for the return of stolen funds that have been stashed in foreign banks and also make sure that the culprits will be put on trial in Nigeria.

The President stated that his administration was carefully gathering facts and figures pertaining to the nation’s stolen funds, before proceeding with prosecution.

Presidential spokesperson, Femi Adesina, released a statement to this effect, after the meeting.

“Nigeria has to break this vicious cycle before we can make progress. We have really degenerated as a country. Our national institutions, including the military, which did wonderfully on foreign missions in the past, have been compromised.

“But we are doing something about it. The military is now retraining and morale has been resuscitated.

“As Petroleum Minister under Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo in the 1970s, I could not travel abroad until I had taken a memo to the Federal Executive Council asking for estacode. Now, everybody does what he wants.

“That is why security-wise and economically, we’re in trouble.”

Speaking further, he added that those who have stolen the national wealth “will be in court in a matter of weeks and Nigerians will know those who have short-changed them.”

Present at the meeting were General Abubakar, the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar III and President of the Christian Association of Nigeria Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor.

Also in attendance were Primate of the Church of Nigeria, Anglican Communion, Most Reverend Nicholas Okoh, Catholic Archbishop of Abuja Cardinal John Onaiyekan, former President of the Nigerian Bar Association, Mrs Priscilla Kuye and Senator Ben Obi.