FG CONCLUDES NEGOTIATION WITH SWITZERLAND ON RETURN OF $321M ABACHA LOOT
FG CONCLUDES NEGOTIATION WITH
SWITZERLAND ON RETURN OF $321M ABACHA LOOT
Gen Sani Abacha
The Attorney General of Federation
and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN), on Thursday, disclosed
that the Federal Government had concluded negotiation with Switzerland on the
return of $321 million recovered from family of the late Head of State, Gen.
Sani Abacha.
The AGF said Nigeria had recently
recovered the sum of $86 million from the controversial Malabu Restrained Funds
from United Kingdom.
Malami disclosed this on Thursday, in
Abuja, while addressing the Pre-Global Forum on Asset Recovery (GFAR)
Consultative meeting with the theme: Building an Ending Framework for Asset
Recovery.
The AGF stressed further that with
the conclusion of negotiation, the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) will be
signed by parties at the Global Forum on Assets Recovery meeting coming up
on December 4th – 6th, 2017, in Washington and that the repatriation
would follow within weeks as agreed by the parties.
He stressed the need for the
international community to ensure the implementation of the measures considered
and adopted at the London Anti-Corruption Summit in May, 2016.
The AGF also said government is
willing to support the transparent return of stolen assets and urged the
international community to improve on procedure for faster return of assets to
enable Nigeria meet the sustainable development goals.
“It is widely acknowledged that
corruption undermines economic development, political stability, rule of law,
social development, disrupts social order and destroys public trust in the
governance system. It is an established fact that corruption which is linked to
organised crime, terrorism and insecurity is one of the reasons for underdevelopment”,
he said.
Malami lamented that resources and
funds meant for development of infrastructure in education, health and security
sectors, among others had been stolen and laundered in different parts of the
world.
He said President Mohammadu Buhari in
May, 2015 made a commitment to tackle corruption and equally focussed on the
return of stolen assets from various jurisdictions and that Nigeria had set a
clear targets towards improving transparency in the management of assets
through Treasury Single Account (TSA) and the Bank Verification Number (BVN).
According to him, Nigeria has
implemented the United Nations Convention Against Corruption requirement
through the development of National Strategy on Anti-Corruption and currently
reviewing the anti-corruption laws and that the government has signed the Open
Government Partnership initiative and completed the National Action Plan for
its practical implementation in Nigeria.
He expressed happiness that the Civil
Society Organisations were involved in the negotiation of the Memoranda of
Understanding and would also be involved in monitoring the use of the funds.
Earlier in his welcome address, Rev.
David Ugolor, Director, African Network for Environment and Economic Justice
(ANEEJ) noted that Global Forum on Asset Recovery established as an outcome of
the London 2016 Anti- Corruption Summit hosted by former British Prime
Minister, David Cameron would build upon the experiences of the Arab Forum on
Asset Recovery (AFAR) and the Ukraine Forum on Asset Recovery (UFAR).
According to him, “the core objective
of GFAR is to convene practitioner experts to provide an effective opportunity
for countries to cooperate on asset recovery cases.
“It also tries to highlight the
importance of strong political commitment, multijurisdictional coordination and
practitioner interaction”, he said and urged the international community to
work the talk by fulfilling some of the commitments made during the London
summit, which. had direct implication for anti-corruption in Nigeria.
“We are eager to see how these
commitments would translate to an expeditious return to Nigeria, assets
belonging to Nigeria stashed away in the UK, US and other countries.”, the
ANEEJ boss added.
Ugolor identified the need for
Nigeria to evolve a new national asset recovery design to stem the illicit
financial transactions still going on in our national dealings and seek a way
to possibly overhaul the existing anti-corruption agencies to grapple with the
antics of fraudsters.
“The anti-corruption agencies will
need to explore more creative strategies to respond to the new large scale
indices of corruption in both the public and private sectors.
“We need to strengthen our legal and
institutional anti-corruption systems through the introduction of innovative legislative
agenda. The Proceeds of Crime Bill and other anti-money laundering reform bill
deserve urgent attention, particularly with the increasing reports of the
looting of public resources”, he added.
In their various speeches, the
British Ambassador to Nigeria, Paul Arkwright, Swiss Ambassador, Eric Mayoraz
and Michael H. Bonner, Senior Police Advisor commended the Nigerian government
for collaborating with Civil Society Organizations to fight corruption and in
tackling illicit financial flows.
They pledged the support and
cooperation of their home countries in repatriating stolen funds stashed away
in banks at their countries back to Nigeria in due course.
