The Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, yesterday, March 9, 2016, signed a letter of intent for the repatriation of 321 million dollars allegedly stashed in Swiss banks by the late Gen. Sani Abacha, former Nigerian Head of State.
The signing which was preceded by a brief discussion between Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo and Swiss Foreign Affairs Minister, Didier Burkhalter took place at the Vice-President’s conference room where Malami signed on behalf of Nigeria and Burkhalter for his home country.
With Swiss Ambassador, Eric Mayoraz, and his Chief of Staff, Damien Cottier, in attendance as witnesses, the occasion served as an avenue for Malami to explain that the Buhari administration was not resting on its oars, as it was working hard to recover all looted funds.
He affirmed, “The message is clear that this government is up and doing as far as the repatriation of looted funds wherever they are located, wherever they are situated in the globe … The government has the desired commitment, has the desired political will, has the desired cooperation and has put in place the desired road map for the recovery of the looted fund.’’
The Swiss Minister reiterated Malami’s point thus, “We are confident that we can work together in order to make a new point and step in fighting corruption. The fight against corruption is a priority of our government and it is important to work together in order to restitute the money that has been stolen to the population.”
He continued, “Switzerland and Nigeria have already written the history 10 years ago with the restitution of 700 million dollars of the Abacha funds. Today, it is another amount of 321 million dollars that can be restituted. We are at the end of the process but it is very important now to make everything right and above all to organise a monitoring mechanism by the World Bank for the use of these stolen assets. And then, there will be a restitution and it will be and can be swift, transparent and can be at the end for the good of the population.’’
Burkhalter pointed out the importance of the two countries showing a common will with the signing of this letter of intent and explained that a legal requirement has been put in place to ensure that the repatriated funds are used judiciously.
“There is the necessity of a monitoring mechanism by the World Bank and it is also necessary to have good projects in social way. For instance, there could be the initiative to save one million lives. If we have this mechanism by the World Bank for monitoring and the good project to the good of the population, then the money will be restituted.’’
Source: Vanguard Newspaper
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