UPP Chairman, Chekwas Okorie

The United Progressive Party and its leadership have expressed total support for President Muhammadu Buhari over the issue of the Executive Order No. 6, which is on the seizure of assets that are under investigation including those assets whose owners or claimants to their title are not able to satisfactorily prove their sources of legitimate acquisition.

On why it is support of the controversial Executive Order, the party, in a statement by its National Chairman, Chekwas Okorie, on Sunday said, “We wish to recall that on Tuesday 5th May, 2015, a cross-section of the National Executive Committee (NEC) of our party paid a courtesy call to then President- elect, a couple weeks before his formal inauguration, which took place on 29th May 2015, at the Eagle Square, Abuja.

“In congratulating Mr. President for his resounding victory at the presidential election, we recommended to him three areas he should give priority attention in his administration. We recommended that he should declare state of emergency in the power sector.

“We also recommended that he should pursue the introduction of Electronic Voting System (EVS). The third recommendation we made was anti-corruption drive and we proposed as follows:

“We are aware like most discerning Nigerians that you are fully prepared to square up to the challenges ahead, but permit us to suggest that your
Government should among other things spare no effort to recover all recoverable of our common patrimony in private hands whether in Nigeria or abroad, which has been illegally or illegitimately acquired.

“UPP shall join the vanguard to mobilize public support for you in this effort. In making this suggestion, we are convinced that recovering as little as twenty-five percent of our common wealth in private hands will go a long way in assisting you fulfill most of your campaign promises to the Nigerian people, to the glory of God”

“We have followed with admiration the single-mindedness of the Buhari administration to fight corruption and recover looted funds from our common treasury. In fighting corruption, the present APC-led government has been implementing the policies of the Treasury Single Account (TSA) and the Bank Verification Number (BVN), in such a comprehensive manner that unprecedented huge amount of funds have been recovered while various leakages that existed in the 16 years before the advent of the Buhari administration have been largely plugged.

“The whistle blowing policy is another unprecedented innovation in fighting corruption that has put the fear of God in many public officers and their criminal accomplices at home and aboard.

“We believe that with improved efficiency in the implementation of these policies the fight against corruption will be won to a very large extent within the period of the tenure of the Buhari administration.

“The greatest challenge we perceive that is confronting the government is the tortuous and sometimes frustrating legal processes in securing the conviction of those who have been identified to have looted the national treasury of this country for several years and used some of these illegal and fraudulent acquisitions to invest in properties and stock in Nigeria and abroad with a large chunk of the loot stashed away in foreign banks where the countries the funds are domiciled are using them to develop their economies.

“It is in this regard that we are in absolute solidarity with President Buhari for issuing the Executive Order No. 6. We are not impressed by the reaction of those who claim that the Executive Order is for the purpose of witch-hunting. There is no Nigerian who has acquired his wealth legitimately that should be afraid of being caught up by the Executive Order.

“Only those who have access to our national treasury and abused such privileges and positions should be afraid of the well intended Executive Order No. 6. The United Progressive Party has no iota of sympathy for such people. Those who argue that the Executive Order No. 6 is unconstitutional are at liberty to approach the courts to seek redress and stop unnecessary noisy politicking.”