Nigeria recovered €6.3m stolen funds in 14 months – Malami

The Federal Government has recovered €6,324,627 stashed abroad by treasury looters in the last 14 months.

The Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, who disclosed this during the ministerial media briefing held at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, said the funds were recovered between March 2021 and May this year.

He said President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration was fully committed to the recovery of looted funds and deployment of such for development of critical infrastructure in the country, including the Second Niger Bridge, and Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, among others.

The AGF also revealed that the federal government had generated N1,823,788,146 from the sale of forfeited assets in the last 18 months.

The federal government had in 2018 signed agreements with foreign partners on the repatriation of funds looted abroad by corrupt government officials in the past.

Malami said: “In complying with the presidential mandate and foreign judicial processes, the Federal Ministry of Justice has recovered a total sum of €6,324,627 from various jurisdictions between March 2021 and May this year.

“Some of the recovered funds are equally being utilised in the financing of critical infrastructure, including Abuja-Kano Expressway, Second Niger Bridge and Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.

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“Let me also state here in 18 months, a total sum of N1,823,788,146 has been generated so far from sale of bid forms and actual sale of forfeited properties.

“You are aware that the president has put in place an inter-ministerial committee that was saddled with the responsibility, not only identifying the forfeited assets, but indeed disposing assets.

“That committee has been working and the aforementioned funds were generated within the period.

“Again, stamp duty recoveries arising from the legislation, the office of the attorney-general of the federation is saddled with the responsibility of effecting recovery. Among the recoveries that are sanctioned for the office of the attorney-general is stamp duty.

“There is an inter-ministerial committee on audit and recovery of back years of stamp duty because there has been a backlog and there is a need for recovery of such backlog from agencies, corporate bodies among others.”

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