The Federal Government said, yesterday, it
had made cash recoveries totaling
N78,325,354,631.82; $185,119,584.61;
£3,508,355.46 and €11, 250, from looters of
public treasury, from May 29, 2015 to May
25, 2016.
The disclosure was in fulfillment of
President Muhammadu Buhari’s promise to
make public the details of the cash
recoveries on his first anniversary in office.
The President had said, in his broadcast to
the nation on the first anniversary, that the
details would be provided by the Federal
Ministry of Information. Minister of
Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai
Mohammed, in a statement, also disclosed
that Recoveries Under Interim Forfeiture
(cash and assets) during the period totaled
N126,563,481,095.43; $9,090,243,920.15;
£2,484,447.55.
According to the statement, said to have
been based on the interim report on the
financial and assets recoveries made by the
various government agencies from May 29,
2015 to May 25, 2016, the Funds Awaiting
Return From Foreign Jurisdictions totaled
321,316,726.1 Dollars; 6,900,000 Pounds
Sterling and 11,826.11 Euros (Eleven
thousand, eight hundred and twenty six
Euros, 11 cents).
It showed that Non-Cash Recoveries
(Farmlands, Plots of Land, Uncompleted
Buildings, Completed Buildings, Vehicles and
Maritime Vessels) during the period total
239.
Meanwhile, Sunday Vanguard has been
made to understand that the reason why
names of looters were not disclosed was
because of the need to avoid the potential
of truncating the cooperation that was
already being enjoyed in the drive to recover
looted funds - in the first instance - from
some of those from whom funds are being
recovered, just as the government did not
want to jeopardize the willingness of others
to return funds in their possession.
The following, the statement said, is the
breakdown of the recovered cash and
assets:
In a related development, the Presidency,
last night, defended its decision not to
release the names of those who returned
the funds. It cited the fact that while some
of those who returned money were not in
any way guilty of any offence, publishing the
names could deter those contemplating
returning ill-gotten funds in their custody.
A top Presidency source, who spoke to
Sunday Vanguard , anonymously, said the
administration was happy to have recovered
as much as $9 billion without going to court
as he said that a number of people still
willing to return could be dissuaded by the
publication of the names.
“This thing is ongoing and one of the
reasons why we did not release the names
was that without going to court we were
able to retrieve all that amount of money. If
you release names, other people who want
to do voluntary returns will not do so. What
we need is the money and not the names”,
he stated.
“Secondly, many of those who returned the
money are not necessarily guilty. For
instance, if my party gave me money to go
and campaign in an election, how am I to
know that that money was from an illicit
source?
“For instance if money is given to a
newspaper for publication, you cannot
criminalise the newspaper because it did
not know where the money came from. If
the newspaper returns the money would it
be fair to publicise the name of the
newspaper.
“If you listen to the mob you will just end up
in the ditch. The practical thing is that we
want more money to come in. And we don’t
even know what are the terms of the
agreement by which anybody returned
money.
“So, for those who are saying that we ought
to release the names, they got it completely
wrong; it would be counterproductive. In
fact, some people could go to court suing us
for defamation and libel and then the whole
essence would be lost and all people would
be talking would be about the court cases.
That is not what Nigeria needs now. What
Nigeria needs now is to be focused and “we
believe we have taken the right step in
letting Nigerians know how much has been
recovered, $9 billion without going to court”.
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