The Attorney-General of the Federation
and Minister of Justice, Mr. Abubakar Malami, said on Sunday that the
government of the United Kingdom had shown its commitment towards
repatriating funds stolen from Nigeria.
Malami returned from the United Kingdom
on Saturday after a two-day International Anti-Corruption Summit also
attended in London last week by many world leaders including President
Muhammadu Buhari.
The minister told our correspondent on
the telephone on Sunday that the UK expressed commitment towards
repatriating Nigeria’s looted funds during a bilateral meeting between
the two nations.
He said though there was no estimate of
how much of the Nigeria’s funds stashed in the UK, but “it has been
compiled for certainty.”
Malami said apart from the meetings
which Nigeria had with the UK, there were no bilateral talks between
Nigeria and other nations.
He said, “There was no sideline talks as
such, but then there has been a bilateral meeting, other than the
conference, in which express commitment has been shown by the leadership
of the UK towards the idea of loot recovery.
“The UK has shown extra commitment apart
from the resolution that was unanimously passed at the conference.
Nigeria was treated as a priority in terms of execution of such
commitment.”
While giving the assurance that Nigeria
would soon start reaping the benefits of the international conference,
the minister admitted that the resolution reached with other nations in
London was not within the nation’s “exclusive control.”
“This is not something that we are
exclusively in control of, but honestly there is a great goodwill and
great commitment working mutually. So, very soon, Nigeria will start
reaping the benefit,” he said.
A 34-paragraph communique issued at the
end of the London conference was captured under three sub-themes –
“Exposing corruption; punishing the corrupt; and supporting those who
have suffered from corruption and driving out corruption.”
Repatriation of proceeds of corruption to the victim nation is part of the resolution reached at the conference.
The communiqué read in part, “The
proceeds of corruption should be identified, seized, confiscated and
returned, consistent with the provisions of UNCAC. We will continue to
strengthen our legal frameworks for asset recovery. We will work
together to enforce confiscation orders across borders including, where
legal systems allow, administrative freezes, non-conviction-based
confiscation orders or unexplained wealth orders. We will ensure that we
have the authority to take prompt action, where possible, in response
to requests by foreign countries to identify, freeze, seize and
confiscate the proceeds of corruption.
“We will afford one another the widest
measure of cooperation and support, applying the provisions of UNCAC and
other relevant international instruments or mechanisms to which our
countries may be a party to.
“We recognise that resolving complex
asset recovery cases is assisted by partnership and cooperation between
requesting and requested states.
“Recognising the importance of strong political commitment and
interaction, and building on the experience of existing regional fora,
we welcome proposals for a Global Asset Recovery Forum to be held in
2017, co-hosted by the United States and United Kingdom, with support
from the joint World Bank and UNODC Stolen Asset Recovery Initiative
(StAR), which will focus on assistance to Nigeria, Ukraine, Tunisia and
Sri Lanka. We will also support a broader use of the global and
regional asset recovery inter-agency networks to obtain investigative
and legal assistance in tracing and freezing the proceeds of
corruption.”
source:punch
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