Both the Director, Asset Recovery and Management Unit, Federal Ministry of Justice, Mrs Ladidi Mohammed, and Mr Tukur Rumar, from the National Cash Transfer Office (NTCO), made the disclosures at an assets recovery roundtable organised by the Embassy of Switzerland, on Thursday, in Abuja.
The United Kingdom has also repatriated the sum of $73 million to the Nigerian government in line with her pledge to help Nigeria recover her stolen funds stashed in the country.
Head of UK Department for International Development (DFID), in Nigeria, Ms. Debbie Palmer, speaking at the event said her government returned the sum $73 million to the Nigerian government in February, 2018 line with the desire of UK to support Nigeria in recovering her stolen asset abroad.
The event was organised to intimate citizens and Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), on the efforts both nations were making on asset recovery after the Post-Global Forum on Assets Recovery (GFAR) held in Washington D.C. in Dec. 2017.
Director, Asset Recovery and Management Unit, Mrs Ladidi Mohammed said necessary steps have been taken by the Federal government to repatriate the over $400 million from about four countries.
On the Abacha 3, she said, “the money was not $500 million as speculated. It is about $400 plus, scattered around different places, Iceland of Jersey, London, France and Switzerland.
“It involves a complex process that I cannot really explain here. But it is not $500 million as it is carried about,” she said.
While confirming the repatriation of $73 million from UK, Mohammed, however, said this was not recovered through usual asset recovery process.
She explained that it was through a case in court that was decided in favour of the Nigerian government and the money would be used to fund the 2018 budget.
On the $1 million Diepreye Alamieyeseigha stolen fund for repatriation from America to Nigeria, she clarified that the money in question was not with the Federal government as some people have been made to believe.
She explained that the Bayelsa State government, which is supposed to be the beneficiary of the cash was the one delaying the repatriation of the fund from the United States of America.
She disclosed that the American Government as part of the agreement requested that the State Government provide a project that it is going to use the fund to implement, adding that Federal government has written to the Bayelsa State government and up till moment no response was received to act upon.
She accordingly asked the non-governmental organisation who raised the issue about the whereabouts of the fund to take it up with the Bayelsa government and not the Federal government.
Nigeria government had made commitments on beneficial ownership, tax transparency, asset recovery, transparency management of recovered funds and payments to victims of corruption at the GFAR forum in Washington D.C last year.
