395
The Federal Government recovered $700 million looted funds in the last four years, even as it just received the £4.2 million taken from Delta State’s treasury by an ex-governor of the state from the United Kingdom.
The Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, who disclosed this during a virtual international conference on Illicit Financial Flows, IFF, yesterday, said: “Nigeria, through proactive and collaborative efforts with other countries, has recovered and ensured the return of over $700 million from the US, the UK, Bailiwick of Jersey, Switzerland, and Ireland in the past four years.
“We are still working with our international partners and other countries to ensure that all Nigeria’s assets that are identified are recovered.”
The minister said the government was using different mechanisms, including a voluntary asset declaration process approved by President Buhari in Executive Order 008.
“In this way, we believe that if Nigerians or Nigerian entities come forward to declare their assets wherever located, the government will apply a levy against those assets and also bring the assets within the tax regime.
“We are also considering different ways to apply non-conviction based procedures in asset recovery to make it less cumbersome and reduce the time spent in court,” he added. Malami also said the government of the United Kingdom had repatriated to Nigeria the sum of £4.2million looted by associates and family members of a convicted former governor of Delta State.