The Senate Chief Whip, Senator Ali Ndume, representating Borno Central, has advocated death penalty for corrupt government officials who embezzled huge public funds.
This is as he blamed acts of corruption by politicians as a result of pressure from members of their constituencies.
In a recent interview on Channels TV’s “Politics Today”, Ndume explained that, “corruption is people-driven” because, many politicians engage in corrupt practices, stealing public funds and sharing the loot with citizens inorder to secure re-election.
Senator Ndume’s interview was in the aftermath of the Senate passage of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency Act (Amendment Bill) 2024 which seeks to amend Section 11 of the NDLEA Act by expanding the penalty for drug related offences from life imprisonment to include death.
He said in contrast to politicians who “steal amounts like N1 billion, there are the more “egregious cases of corruption, such as embezzling N1 trillion or engaging in drug trafficking”, which he believes warrant harsher penalties, including the death penalty.
Ndume stressed that he supports stronger punishments for corruption, including life imprisonment or lengthy prison terms for those who steal large sums.
He said, “Our corruption is very small one. Our corruption is people-driven. You steal money, you go and share it with the people. If you don’t, you are not coming back for four years.
“I’ve been in the National Assembly, I can’t say people will look at me on TV now and say I’m a clean person, No I have to say the truth. If the death penalty is supposed to be included in corruption, I will support it but somebody that stole N1 million, you go and kill him, and then somebody that stole N1 billion, you go and kill him, No.
“But I’m in support of saying you are progressive. If you steal N1 billion, maybe you go to life imprisonment, or imprisonment for 20 years, I support that.
“But if you go and steal, like I’m hearing, N1 trillion of government’s money, that means you have deprived many people, no, that person should be killed.
“The death penalty is the best deterrent for those being caught for drugs. If you do drugs, you are killing people. In fact, that means you have destroyed the lives of many people and killed many.’’
The amended Bill updated the list of drugs classified as illicit and strengthened the operational powers and scope of the NDLEA as well as empowering the agencty to establish laboratories.
