AGF: £6.32m, 5.5m euros, $390m looted funds recovered in seven years

• Published date: 13 January 2023
• Publication title: Nigeria - The Nation

The Federal Government has realised over N1.8 billion from the sale of forfeited properties.

It has also recovered £6,324,627.66, pound 5,494,743.71 and $390,000,000 from countries where looted funds were kept.

The Attorney-General of the Federal (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN), spoke on the proceeds and recovered funds in Abuja yesterday at the 18th edition of the Buhari Administration Scorecard (2015-2023), an initiative of the Federal Ministry of Information and Culture.

He said while some of the funds were deployed to social investment programmes for the poor, others are being expended on key national infrastructure.

The minister said: 'A total sum of N1,823,788,146.86 has been generated so far by the Ministry from the forfeited properties.'

Malami said about $322 million recovered from Switzerland in 2017 was applied to the social investment programme.

He added that the $311 million recovered from the United States and the Island of Jersey was utilised for the construction of the Second Niger Bridge, the Lagos-Ibadan and Abuja-Kano roads.

The AGF said before this administration, anti-corruption efforts were not coordinated, which led to the adoption of the National Anti-Corruption Strategy (NACS) (2017 to 2021).

He said with the increased performance of anti-corruption agencies, the Federal Government has extended NACS' implementation from 2022 to 2026.

Malami said 3,000 convictions were recorded by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

According to him, with the introduction of Executive Order 6, about 300 per cent success has been recorded in the prosecution of high-profile corruption cases.

Malami said 17 local governments in Borno State controlled by Boko Haram before the advent of the Buhari administration have been recovered.

He added: 'A total of 3,000 terrorism cases have been profiled to date, out of which over 1,500 cases were prosecuted, with 397 convictions realised.

'A total of 7,000 cases involving various offences, including maritime, armed robbery, vandalisation of electrical equipment and pipelines, financial matters, cybercrime, kidnapping and anti-corruption have been successfully prosecuted.'

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