Recovering stolen funds better than jailing corrupt persons – Sagay

It is more important to recover stolen funds than to jail corrupt persons, a presidential adviser has said.

Itse Sagay, the chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption (PACAC), Itse Sagay, also said it could be a waste of efforts trying to jail corrupt persons.

According to Punch newspaper, Mr Sagay, who was represented by Etannibi Alemika, a PACAC member, said this on Wednesday during a workshop organised by the committee in collaboration with the National Orientation Agency (NOA) in Jos, Plateau state

He said after an evaluation, he discovered that jailing corrupt people in the country was “a waste of effort” because of the weakness in the judicial process.

Mr Sagay said his committee preferred to place emphasis on recovering stolen assets from people found culpable.

He said while the focus is placed on financial corruption, “the truth is that nepotism is a more serious problem.”

Mr Sagay also commended President Muhammadu Buhari for his anti-corruption fight while calling on the public to alert relevant agencies about any acts of corruption.

“Corruption has primarily been fought by the Federal Government in the country. There is too much focus on financial corruption but the truth is that nepotism is a more serious problem,” he said.

“After our evaluation in the fight against corruption, we discovered that jailing people is a desperate and wasteful effort. It is going to be difficult to have convictions because of the weakness in the judicial institution. And that is why we have concentrated more on asset seizure of corrupt people as the way to go.”