Chairman Senate Committee on Special Duties, Senator Yusuf Abubakar Yusuf, All Progressives Congress, APC, Taraba Central has called on the Federal Government to ensure that spouses, children, siblings, parents and all other beneficiaries of corruption proceeds must be punished along side the major actor in the crime.
Yusuf was speaking against the backdrop of case against the Deputy Commissioner of Police and erstwhile head of the Nigerian Police Intelligence Response Team, Abba Kyari.
Speaking with journalists in Abuja, Senator Yusuf called for the immediate creation of an agency that would be saddled with the responsibilities of confiscating proceeds of corruption.
He said: “I am really very concerned about the future of the country in the sense that many of us are joking and playing with the extent to which corruption has entered into the fabrics of our polity.
“President Muhammadu Buhari has warned us that if we do not fight corruption, corruption would definitely not only fight us, but kill us a nation.
“Corruption, unfortunately, is in every sector of the economy. Some people say drug peddling is not corruption, but it is actually.
“There is an allegation that one of our topmost police officers in the country, DSP Abba Kyari, who had been arrested, was conniving with drug peddlers.
“His spouse, children, siblings and parents are all beneficiaries of corruption.
“So, while the law is criminalising an individual for corruption, and he is in jail, his wife, children, siblings and parents would all be enjoying the fruits of his corruption.
“It is possible for someone to be corrupt and others may not know but by and large, every corruption has its own beneficiaries.
“The law should also be extended to all the beneficiaries of corruption, especially the criminal aspect.
“There are countries where corrupt persons are jailed for as much as 100 years. There are nations which has death penalty as punishment for corrupt people.
“It is very disturbing when you consider how far corruption had destroyed the country in all aspect including the National Assembly, civil service and in the academia.”
