The Chief Whip of the Senate, Ali Ndume, has explained the difference between corruption by politicians and other people.
Ndume said corruption in Nigerian politics is people-driven and should not warrant any serious punishment.
The senator admitted that politicians “steal and share with the people”.
He stated this on Tuesday when he featured on Channels TV Politics Today while speaking on the death penalty as the deterrent for those caught with drugs.
He said when politicians’ corruption is compared to others, it is a “small one’
He stated, “If you compare us, politicians, to all the corruption, it is very small. Our corruption is people-driven. If you steal it, you will go and share it with the people. If you don’t, you are not coming back for four years. There is no reason for stealing.
“I have been to the National Assembly, I can’t say because we are on TV now and not telling the truth. If the death penalty is supposed to be included in corruption, I will support it but you don’t go and kill someone that stole one million or one billion, no. But someone who steals one trillion of government money should be killed.
The senator said he supports death punishment for drug dealers.
“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 so many people and killed so many people,” he said.
Recently, the Senate passed a bill, the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency Act (Amendment Bill) 2024 passed by the Senate.
The bill prescribed death penalty for persons found guilty of trading in hard drugs and narcotics.
This has, however, been debated and faulted by many stakeholders on whether or not President Bola Tinubu should accent the bill.
On Saturday, some legal practitioners expressed different opinions on the debate over the bill. Some of them urged President Bola Tinubu not to assent to the bill passed by the Senate while others pressed for it to be signed into law.
Some of the lawyers stressed that the death penalty was not a solution to drug trafficking and other drug-related offences in the country.