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EFCC recovered N738.9bn since 2015, but this is why the Government can’t use it till next year

In a conference of states to the United Nations Convention against Corruption holding in Vienna, Austria, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) said it recovered loots totalling N738.9billion between May, 2015 and October 20, 2017.

The statement was made by the Acting Chairman of the Anti-Graft Agency, Ibrahim Magu, during a presentation titled “International Cooperation in Relation to Technical Assistance: The Nigerian Experience”.

Spokesman of the Commission, Mr Wilson Uwujaren, said the commission had made a lot of recoveries locally using the mechanism of non-conviction based forfeiture, backed by Section 17 of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Fraud Related Offences Act, 2006.

He gave a detailed report on the efforts and progress made by the agency, citing the $43 million recovered from Deziani Allison-Madueke, with N2bn spread in seven accounts within three Nigerian Banks, Abacha loot, Malabu Oil, and the arms procurement scandal amongst others.

He noted that efforts made cut across Switzerland, the United States of America, the United Kingdom, United Arab Emirate, Jersey Island and Panama amongst others.

The EFCC boss sought improved coordination and cooperation among state parties in asset recovery, adding that it could be done through the adoption of measures that would remove traditional barriers such as bank secrecy, in line with Article 46(8) and dual Criminality Article 46(9).

He also mentioned that there should be a simplification of legal technicalities in the recovery and repatriation of stolen funds, emphasizing that any financial institution that violates Anti-Money Laundering/Combating the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) measures be sanctioned and prosecuted.

Magu sought for measures to reduce the cost of recovery of assets for developing countries and ensure a speedy return of all stolen assets to victim states in line with the current resolution sponsored by Nigeria.

Where are the recovered loots?

Meanwhile, a retired Assistant Commissioner of Police, Dejo Osuolale, in June 2016, said “People are saying where are the fund recovered so far by the government, as a retired police officer, the funds are exhibits.

“Unless the cases are disposed of in court, the government cannot spend the recovered looted funds because it is only the court that can give the go ahead. And that is why people have to wait and see what happened at the end of the day”.

In April 2017, The Minister of Finance, Mrs Kemi Adeosun said “We have a recovery account. All the recovered monies go into the recovery account which we reconcile”.

The following month, she was also reported to have said that although Nigeria is currently recovering some looted funds; it cannot rely on the loot to fund the budgets.

“It takes a long time to recover this looted money. Take a look at the Abacha loot, it has been with the Swiss Government for 20 years and yet we still don’t have it back. Even on the funds recovered from Government officials, we keep going to court to get them back”.

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