FG Moves to Recover U.S.$321 Million Abacha Loot

The Attorney General of Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, has revealed that negotiation with Switzerland on the return of $321 million recovered from the late Abacha family had been concluded, adding that Nigeria recently recovered $85 million from the controversial Malabu Restrained Funds from United Kingdom.

Salihu Isah, Special Adviser, Media and Publicity to Mr. Malami said the attorney general stated this in his opening remarks at the Pre-Global Forum on Asset Recovery, GFAR, Consultative meeting with the theme: Building an Ending Framework for Asset Recovery in Nigeria on Thursday in Abuja.

Mr. Malami stressed further that with the conclusion of negotiation, the Memorandum of Understanding will be signed by parties at the Global Forum on Assets Recovery meeting coming up on December 4 to 6 in Washington and that the repatriation would follow within weeks as agreed by the parties.

He affirmed 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 emphasised that Nigeria is more than willing to support the transparent return of stolen assets.

He equally 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 stated.

Mr. Malami reiterated 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.

The minister further reaffirmed that President Muhammadu Buhari in May, 2015 made a commitment to tackle corruption and equally focused 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). He stated also that Nigeria had saved trillion of naira through these processes.

Subsequently, under the United Nations Convention Against Corruption implementation mechanism, Nigeria was Peer Reviewed in May, 2017 by Myanmar and Cote D’Ivoire in the first year of the second cycle which covers areas of Preventive Measures And Asset Recovery.

Nigeria has also implemented the United Nations Convention Against Corruption requirement through the development of National Strategy on Anti-Corruption and currently reviewing the anti-corruption laws, also the government has signed the Open Government Partnership initiative and completed the National Action Plan for its practical implementation in Nigeria, he said.

He added that he was pleased 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, 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.