The Presidency has made
clarification on the confusion trailing the whereabouts of recovered loots.
It confirmed that the funds were
being paid into dedicated accounts with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
The Special Assistant to the
President on Justice Reform, Mrs. Juliet Ibekaku, speaking at press conference
in Abuja, said all stolen public funds recovered so far were paid into special
asset recovery accounts with the CBN, which in turn, transfers such funds into
the Federation Account, from where they have been utilised to fund the budget
since 2017.
Ibekaku-Nwagwu, who is also the
coordinator of Nigeria’s Open Government Partnership (OGP), said: “As many of
you may be aware, government has made significant efforts in asset recovery. A
recent MoU on the co-monitoring of the expenditure of Abacha loot repatriated
from Switzerland has been described by stakeholders as model for other
countries on how to utilize looted funds when they are returned to their countries
of Origin.
“However, when the federal
government under President Muhammadu Buhari began the recovery of looted funds,
the President personally authorized the issuance of guidelines on the
channeling of the looted funds. He specifically directed that all recovered
fund be kept at special asset recovery accounts in the CBN.
“From there, the funds should be
moved to the Federation Account for the purpose of funding the national budget.
That was the case last year. We can see that even the 2017 budget was partly
funded with the recovered loot.
“As we speak, the President has
appointed auditors to examine all the CBN asset recovery accounts. So, there
should be no doubts over the whereabouts of recovered funds,” she added.
Differences
in the figures made available to the media by the Acting Chairman, Economic and
Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Mr Ibrahim Magu, and the Minister of
Finance, Kemi Adeosun, have raised suspicions over the whereabouts of the
recovered funds.
Magu had announced the sum of
N739bn as the amount recovered in the first two years of his stewardship.
But, Adeosun said records
available to the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation, OAGF, had
only N91.4 billion as amounts recovered since 2015. She consequently requested
the EFCC to clarify where the cash recoveries were deposited, with documentary
evidence.
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