The Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice Abubakar Malami, SAN, has revealed that the Federal Government of Nigeria would soon make more recovery of public fund of about $200million stolen which is kept outside the country. Malami made this known during the 2021 annual public lecture organised by the centre for Media and Peace Initiative, New York, United state of America. The Special Assistant on Media and public Relations to the AGF, Dr Umar Gwandu made the statement on behalf of the AGF saying that outstanding successes recorded by the President Buhari administration in international asset recovery, could be a good template for other African countries to copy from.
According to him, the stance of President Buhari on corruption has remained unchanged, and this has been demonstrated through legislative framework, institutional Infrastructure, adoption of preventive measures to mention but few. Setting the record straight, Malami said that, various strategies have been deployed ranging from legislative framework, establishment of institutions and policy measures targeting at crushing down corruption, Regional Corporation and ensuring good governance for the citizenry.
Sighting the record, He said, “In 2017, the signing of a trilateral Agreement with Switzerland and World Bank enabled the recovery of $322.515million. He also added that, “In 2020 a total sum of $311.7million was returned to Nigeria after signing another trilateral agreement with the U.S.A and Bailiwick of Jersey.
Malami continue, “Also in the year 2020, 5.4million Euros was recovered in March emanating from an agreement signed with Northern Island. The Federal Government was able to recover from UK the sum of €4,214,017.66 connected to the family of James Ibori.
Meanwhile, “Additional recoveries to the tune of $200million are being anticipated subject to the settlement of litigations of which the Ministry of Justice is attending to at present..” the AGF added.
He disclosed that all these successes were recorded because of the political will of the administration, funding legislation and through executive orders. He said one of the campaign mantra of the Buhari administration was the fight against corruption and which he is doing.
He added that fight against the corruption in this administration has been taken to a level of cybercrime which was never experience before in this country; money laundering and oil bunkering are being tackled head-on.
He noted that the federal government has developed the national Anti-corruption Strategy and a guideline for smooth implementation of the strategy which has five pillars; prevention of corruption, public engagement, ethical re-orientation, enforcement and sanction, and recovery and management of proceeds of crime.
He revealed that even the members of the ruling party in person of former governors and card carrying members are not speared by this administration in its quest to stamp out corruption. It is evident that the administration has secured conviction against some of them presently, the AGF added.
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