FG to recover £321m, $600m from Switzerland, UK

  The Federal Government says it is on the verge of repatriating more loot kept in foreign countries by corrupt Nigerians this year.

The Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, Mr. Abubakar Malami (SAN), stated this on Thursday when he appeared before the Senate Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters to defend the ministry’s budget estimates for 2017.
According to him, the FG is expecting the recovery of €6.3m from Ireland, $600m from the United Kingdom and £321m from Switzerland in  2017 alone.

Malami lamented that the absence of provision for the capital expenditure of the ministry in the 2016 Appropriation Act “greatly limited the ministry’s ability to make extensive recoveries.

He said, “Our budgetary proposal of N18, 528,093,480.00 was not appropriated, thereby compelling the ministry to operate on a zero capital budget.

“We have a lot of international recovery that are supposed to be captured in jurisdictions like the United States of America, United Kingdom, Ireland, France, Switzerland, Panama, among others. Significant amounts of money are there (in those places) also.

“In Ireland, we are expecting about €6.3m any moment from now. The process for the repatriation of that money has reached an advanced stage. We are also expecting about $600m recovery from the UK.

“All the pending litigation were substantially consolidated and we are adopting a composite settlement arrangement to displace any possibility of any jurisdiction hanging on to any litigation which could slow down the process of repatriation.

“In New Jersey, we recently obtained a ruling to allow Nigeria initiate the process of repatriating certain loot that is there. In the UK, we have signed numerous memoranda of understanding between the two nations for the repatriation of sizeable funds.

“In Switzerland too, we have executed a memorandum of understanding that will pave the way for the repatriation of about £321m. These recovery are happening on a daily basis and we are engaging the international community in the process.

“What I am trying to say is that the limitations placed on us in 2016 led to zero budget for capital (expenditure) and that seriously hindered our ability to make aggressive recovery at the international level.