ABUJA – The recent official Pronouncement of President Muhammadu Buhari to recover all assets looted from government treasury has been lauded by the Africa Network for Environment and Economic Justice, ANEEJ.
A press statement signed by ANEEJ Executive Director, Rev. David Ugolor yesterday said his organisation “commends this commitment expressed by the Federal government, and the plan to work assiduously with international partners to recover Nigeria’s assets stashed abroad.
‘In spite of this merit involved with the FG collaborating with external partners to recover stolen and looted cash from Nigeria, if the relevant laws to firm up the campaign to recover these funds are not there, the federal government and international effort will be a waste. We therefore call on President Muhammadu Buhari to as a matter of urgency sign the Proceeds of Crime Bill (POCA) passed by the 7th National Assembly into law to send the right signal of government’s preparedness to match words with action’, ANEEJ executive director has said.
“The Federal government must first of all strengthen the capacity of anti-corruption agencies to fight corruption before inviting international partners’, he added.
Ugolor urged the Federal government to work with the 8th National Assembly to ensure that all inconsistencies associated with the Mutual Legal Assistance (MLA) Bill which seeks to smoothen the legal framework for international collaboration in criminal matters and Whistle Blowers’ Protection Bill as well as any other bill needed to prosecute government’s looted assets recovery plan is resolved as soon as possible and get the National Assembly to pass them into law as the 7th Assembly could not pass them into law before it wound up. The POCA was among those passed by the 7th National Assembly. It seeks to recover all funds stolen, together with proceeds accruable from such stolen wealth. The recent discovery of another $320 million dollars Abacha loot in Luxemburg is related to the advocacy campaigns being carried out by ANEEJ.
‘To avoid the charge of selectiveness, the Federal government may want to be decisive and firm, and not recognize any sacred cows with the recovery of these funds. The commitment must be in line with his inauguration declaration to be for everybody and to be for nobody’, Ugolor said.
Together with our partners the NNSA, ANEEJ reiterates its pledge to collaborate with the Nigerian government in its effort to halt impunity with which public funds are spent for personal enrichment’, Ugolor further said.
ANEEJ has been in the forefront in the fight to recover the country’s looted assets, and has worked tirelessly with international partners to engender a culture of good governance, poverty alleviation and anti-corruption. ANEEJ has been consistent with asking the Federal government to repudiate the deal reached between the direct beneficiaries of the Abacha loot and the Federal government.