By Wole Mosadomi

Minna—Members of Niger State House of Assembly, yesterday accused the executive of lacking the capacity and political will to prosecute looters of the state treasury with a view to recovering same.

Members, who spoke at their sitting, decried the way government was pursuing the issue of corruption, warning that corruption would continue to be the bane of development in the state if treasury looters were allowed to go scot free.

Speaking, Deputy Speaker, Alhaji Hussain Ibrahim, called on the executive to match words with action and go after the looters saying: “It is sad that we have read of stolen funds being recovered in Benue, Kaduna and Plateau states mentioning amount recovered from those who looted government funds in the past administration. But Niger State executive do not have the courage to come out with facts of the looted funds. If the facts are out, it will show how serious the government is about looted funds.”

Similarly, member representing Bosso Constituency, Alhaji Madaki Malik, said: “Before the presentation of the budget, the administration had been singing on how it would deal with those who looted government money and enshrined corruption but eight months into the administration, we are yet to see any measure taken to deal with the looters neither has any measure being put in place to recover the money. Since the start of this administration till now, no information on who the looters are and how the money will be recovered.”

The Speaker, Ahmed Marafa, called on the government to implement the report of the five committees inaugurated after the government came in power to look into funds stolen by individuals in the previous administration.