PRESIDENCY REVEALS WHEREABOUTS OF RECOVERED LOOTS
PRESIDENCY
REVEALS WHEREABOUTS OF RECOVERED LOOTS
The Presidency has made clarification on the confusion trailing
the whereabouts of recovered loots.
It confirmed that the funds were being paid into dedicated
accounts with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
The Special Assistant to the President on Justice Reform, Mrs.
Juliet Ibekaku, speaking at press conference in Abuja, said all stolen public
funds recovered so far were paid into special asset recovery accounts with the
CBN, which in turn, transfers such funds into the Federation Account, from
where they have been utilised to fund the budget since 2017.
Ibekaku-Nwagwu, who is also the coordinator of Nigeria’s Open
Government Partnership (OGP), said: “As many of you may be aware, government
has made significant efforts in asset recovery. A recent MoU on the
co-monitoring of the expenditure of Abacha loot repatriated from Switzerland
has been described by stakeholders as model for other countries on how to
utilize looted funds when they are returned to their countries of Origin.
“However, when the federal government under President Muhammadu
Buhari began the recovery of looted funds, the President personally authorized
the issuance of guidelines on the channeling of the looted funds. He
specifically directed that all recovered fund be kept at special asset recovery
accounts in the CBN.
“From there, the funds should be moved to the Federation Account
for the purpose of funding the national budget. That was the case last year. We
can see that even the 2017 budget was partly funded with the recovered loot.
“As we speak, the President has appointed auditors to examine all
the CBN asset recovery accounts. So, there should be no doubts over the
whereabouts of recovered funds,” she added.
It reports that differences in the figures made available to the
media by the Acting Chairman, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC,
Mr Ibrahim Magu, and the Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun, have raised
suspicions over the whereabouts of the recovered funds.
Magu had announced the sum of N739bn as the amount recovered in
the first two years of his stewardship.
But, Adeosun said records available to the Office of the
Accountant-General of the Federation, OAGF, had only N91.4 billion as amounts
recovered since 2015. She consequently requested the EFCC to clarify where the
cash recoveries were deposited, with documentary evidence.
