By Soni Daniel, Northern Region Editor, Wahab Abdulah, Charles Kumolu & Gbenga Oke
LAGOS — The Federal Government, weekend, released the list of funds looted from the national treasury without names of those involved in the loot.

Although government had given reasons for withholding the names of the looters, one of which was to stave off litigations, Nigerians have continued to clamour that those involved should be exposed.

But will the Federal Government still press criminal charges against treasury looters, who have forfeited assets worth billions of Naira to the national coffers?

This was the question that dominated discussion at the weekend, as the government weighed many options on what to do with the looters whose identities had not been revealed as at last night.

A top Federal Government official, who is actively involved in the funds recovery effort, told Vanguard that it was possible that some of the cases would be treated differently from the others because of the amount involved and how the money was taken.

The source said: “It is too early to say whether to try those who refunded the money and those who forfeited assets.

“In any case, all the cases are not the same because we applied serious effort to trace and freeze some of the assets while others were willingly returned by the looters. These issues would certainly play a crucial role in deciding who to charge or not.”

But the Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, whose opinion on the matter was sought last night, declined to make a pronouncement on the matter.

Malami said he could not immediately speak on whether the looters would be prosecuted or not, given the fact that recovery efforts were ongoing.

The minister, who spoke from an official engagement in Cameroon, said there was still more work to be done in the recovery of looted fund.

The AGF said: “We are working hard to ensure that all looted funds are recovered and put to use for the common good of all Nigerians.

“I have nothing to say on the issue of whether to prosecute or not at the moment but what Nigerians should know and believe is that the Buhari administration is committed to recovering all stolen assets and using same to work for them.

It’s an empty fight against corruption  — Babatope

Meanwhile, reacting to the release of the looted funds and assets, yesterday, former Transport Minister and a chieftain of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Chief Ebenezer Babatope, said government’s refusal to publish names of looters was an indication that its fight against corruption was empty.

He said:  ‘’The Federal Government cannot claim to be fighting corruption when it is only list of monies recovered that was published and names of the so-called looters were protected.  What the Federal Government is doing right now is an empty fight against corruption.”

Govt must determine the source of funds before spending  –Ogunye

A lawyer and human rights activist, Jiti Ogunye, said the government must determine the source of the funds before it could be appropriated for any project.

“It is good that the Federal Government has made the disclosure of the funds recovered so far. Now we are requesting that the government should also reveal the identity of those who took the funds away.

“As to how the money should be utilised, the Federal Government, whose agencies recovered the money, have a duty to come to a determination as to the source of these monies in order to know the authority to whom it should be returned.

Nigerians have right to know the looters — Opara

On his part, former Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Austin Opara, said Nigerians have the right to know who the looters were, for government not to create doubts on the minds of many Nigerians.

“Releasing the names of the looters don’t really mean much to me since the amount of monies looted has been published to justify the fact that monies were looted,” he said.

Identity of looters should have been included—Tsav

A retired Police Commissioner, Alhaji Abubakar Tsav said:  “It was a good thing to do but they should have made the identity of the looters known to us. Releasing their names would have served as a major deterrent for other looters.”