FG To Recover Another $750m Abacha Loot

$750 million ‘Abacha loot.’ and £6.9 million ‘Ibori loot’ on behalf of Federal Government. Malami, who gave the assurance during an interactive session with the House of Representatives Committee on Justice, chaired by Abdukrasaq Atunwa, held at the National Assembly complex, Abuja, explained that the funds would be recovered through Mutual Legal Assistance Agreements or other bilateral and multilateral instruments. “In respect of the recovery of looted assets, the ministry will engage in an agreed waive policy of using Mutual Legal Assistance Agreements or other bilateral and multilateral instruments to seek cooperation with other jurisdictions to ensure the repatriation of illicitly-acquired assets in foreign jurisdictions,” Malami said. “The collaboration will equally involve the engagement of foreign-based counsel to attend to matters on behalf of the Federal Government. Low-hanging fruits being targeted in this initiative include $750 million ‘Abaca loot’ as well as the sum of £6.9 million of the ‘Ibori loot’. “On the long run, the ministry will be in a position to coordinate the recovery of billions of dollars in foreign jurisdictions, based on current estimations.” While responding to the pending terrorism cases, the minister disclosed that the ministry had concluded arrangements to kick-start about 800 terrorism cases. “My ministry is currently processing approximately 800 terrorism cases for prosecution. The resources required for the successful prosecution of these cases as well as the general coordination of the criminal justice sector as envisaged under the ACIA, were fully captured in the original proposal made by the ministry to the Ministry of Finance,” he explained. While reacting to the restriction placed on the judgment debts, the minister stated that the ministry would not be able to execute any capital projects considering the huge judgment liabilities of N75 billion against it compared to the N16 billion proposed in the 2016 budget. He further lamented that “the sum of N709,155,140 approved by the Budget Office does not meet 1 percent of the outstanding judgment debts,” but maintained that “given the enormous additional responsibilities on the ministry arising from the passage of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA) 2015, this amount is obviously, grossly inadequate.”