The government recently disclosed that over one billion dollars had been recovered as looted funds by the present administration in the last seven and half years.
The Human and Environmental Development Agenda (HEDA Resource Centre) has said it disagrees with the Nigerian government on the amount of looted funds the latter said it recovered from 2015 to date.
The government recently disclosed that over one billion dollars had been recovered as looted funds by the present administration in the last seven and half years.
The Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, who made this known while briefing newsmen at the end of the weekly Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari at the State House, Abuja, said $1 billion looted funds had so far been recovered by the Buhari-led administration from May 2015 to date.
According to him, the current administration has multiplied the success rate at which the anti-corruption agencies have been securing convictions, citing the case of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), which recorded 3,000 convictions in 2022 alone.
Commenting on the issue of looted funds, Malami stated that the funds had been deployed to various sectors of the economy, including poverty alleviation.
He said: “As I stated, in terms of prevention, we have succeeded and recorded tremendous success, to the extent that as at the time we came on board as a government, for example, only 109 convictions were recorded from the inception of major agencies of government that were saddled with the responsibility of the fight against corruption, spanning over a period of more than 10 years as at the time we came.
“But today, we are recording successes in terms of convictions to the extent that a single agency of government, if you take, for example, the EFCC, within a year, I’m talking of 2022, we have recorded over 3,000 convictions.
“So if you are looking at corruption from the perspective of conviction, if your yardstick is to determine what success is in terms of convictions have been recorded, the yardstick is that we have succeeded in moving the convictions to the next level from the point of 109 convictions in over 10 years, by previous administrations, to a point of over 3000 convictions within a year by the government of President Muhammadu Buhari.
“Then if you are looking at it from other perspectives, for example, perspectives related to the recovery of the looted assets, the government of President Muhammadu Buhari has succeeded in recovering around $1 billion from its inception to date.”
“You will recall, with precision, that in 2017, over 300 million was indeed recovered from Switzerland, which monies were eventually deployed in the reduction of poverty, in line with the commitment of President Muhammadu Buhari, which in effect gave rise to what we had as NPower, Trader Money, among other multiple programme that were put in place by the government of President Muhammadu Buhari,” he added.
However, Mr Olanrewaju Suraju, Chairman of HEDA Resource Centre disclosed that the figure published by the government is not accurate.
He said the only thing that is correct about President Buhari's administration has been the inconsistency in the stating and flaunting of figures, especially regarding asset recovery.
Suraju who made this known while speaking to journalists at a programme organised by HEDA, tagged 'A One-Day Anti-Corruption Situation Room Forum (ACSR),' in Abuja on Thursday lamented that the government’s asset recovery progamme has not been coordinated.
He explained that a serious government that values statistics and data could have been more constructive and responsible to provide data that covers international recoveries and local recoveries.
He said; "The only thing that is correct about this government has been the inconsistency in their stating and flaunting of figures, especially when it comes to the issue of asset recovery.
"The government asset recovery has not been a coordinated activity. EFCC was recovering, ICPC was recovering and both of them are still recovering. The Ministry of Finance was also recovering.
"With respect to the whistleblower policy, the federal government has not really been working on any coordinated affairs, that would have allowed the coordinated figure of what has been recovered.
"When you are talking about recovery, the Abacha loot recovery is there, some of the properties, the ones that have been recovered, there are still some that are under interim forfeiture and there are those that are under final forfeiture.
"But for a serious government that values statistics and data, it could have been more constructive and responsible for that government to provide data for the international recovery and what has been recovered locally.
"I don't think that the figure published is actually accurate.”
He noted that the funds recovered are not meant for the federal government alone.
He said, “They're supposed to be funds from the Federation that needs to go back to the Federation, and from the Federation, shared according to the allocation and agreement of the Constitution, among the federal, state and local governments.
"So for the federal government to now say that it's been deployed to various sectors of the economy, and the poverty alleviation programme was that of the federal government even though it is done in the states, but it's a federal government programme, that is done in collaboration with the states.
"If there will be a determination of how the funds will be used, it must be through political discussion and agreement and agreement between both the federal state or local government.
"The federal government of President Buhari is expected to have provided leadership by having a coordinating centre. Unfortunately, the Office of the Attorney General, where you have the Asset Recovery Management was more interested in the disposal of recovered assets than actually the coordination of the management of the assets.”
"There were efforts towards the passage of the Asset Recovery Management Agency, which was meant to be a lean agency that would have provided the opportunity to have valuable, credible data on recovered assets and the utilization, but rather than pursuing that agency, the politicians went about creating another agency that would now become susceptible to prosecution, to litigation, rather than just mere management of assets from the prosecutor," he added.