Ebun Francis || Ibrahim Magu, the acting chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on Wednesday in Austria said the agency has recovered loots totalling N738.9 billion or $2.9 billion between May, 2015 and Oct. 20, 2017.
Magu made the revelation at the ongoing 7th Session of the Conference of the States Parties to the United Nations Convention Against Corruption holding in Vienna.
Wilson Uwujaren, the spokesman for the ant crime agency in a statement on Wednesday said the acting EFCC chairman while presenting a paper titled: “International Cooperation in Relation to Technical Assistance: The Nigerian Experience”, said the sum was exclusive of smaller currencies in Durham, CRA, and British Pound.
He stated that the commission had made a lot of recoveries locally using the mechanism of the non-conviction based forfeiture provided under Section 17 of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Fraud Related Offences Act, 2006.
Magu was quoted to have said, “Within this year alone, the commission recovered stolen assets running into several millions of US Dollars and billions in naira.
“These include the sum of $43 million recovered from Deziani Allison-Madueke, Nigeria’s former Minister of Petroleum and N2 billion spread in seven accounts within three Nigerian banks laundered from the Federal Capital Territory Police Command Salary Accounts”, he explained.
Magu said the country had also made progress in specific cases related to Abacha loot, Malabu Oil, Diezani and associates, and the arms procurement scandal.
These efforts, he said, cut across Switzerland, USA, UK, UAE, Jersey Island and Panama.
In his recommendations, the EFCC boss sought improved coordination and cooperation among state parties in asset recovery.
He said this could be done through the consideration and adoption of measures that would remove traditional barriers such as bank secrecy in line with Article 46(8) and dual Criminality Article 46(9) as well as simplify legal technicalities in the recovery and repatriation of stolen funds.
He further sought measures to reduce cost of recovery of assets for developing countries and ensure speedy return of all stolen assets to victim states in line with the current resolution sponsored by Nigeria.
He also called for sanction and prosecution of any financial institution that violates AML/CFT measures and the maintenance of a public register on beneficial ownership.