Abdulrasheed Bawa, chairman of the Economic and Financial
Crimes Commission (EFCC), says it is the position of the law that recovered
assets should be returned to the victims it was looted from.
A controversy on whether the state or federal government
should be the recipient of repatriated loot sprung up after the United Kingdom
made a commitment to return £4.2 million loot recovered from James Ibori,
former governor of Delta state, to the federal government.
Abubakar Malami, attorney-general of the federation, said
the recovered loot will be channelled into federal projects.
However, stakeholders including Femi Falana, human rights
lawyer, argued that the Ibori loot in question should be returned to Delta
since it was taken from the coffers of the state.
According to Falana, the federal government has no locus
standi to decide how the recovered money is spent.
On his part, Ifeanyi Okowa, governor of Delta, said if the
money cannot be sent to the state’s coffers, it should be spent on projects in
the state.
However, speaking on the issue of asset recovery when he
featured on One-on-One, a programme on Nigerian Television Authority (NTA),
Bawa said the law states that assets recovered from former governors should be
returned to the affected states.
“When it comes to
this issue of recovered assets, the provision of the law is very clear. There
are victims of these crimes. Somebody has gotten somebody’s money fraudulently
and assets are recovered from that individual. Of course, it will be returned
to him (the victim),” Bawa was quoted as saying in EFCC ALERT.
“State government lost money through its former governor;
assets are recovered from that former governor. Of course, it will be returned
to the state. Other assets that are recovered for the federal government, it
will be returned to the federal government.
“But there are stages. Issues of identification, tracing,
and recovery of assets are there; all these are stages. Of course, before trial
is concluded in court where matters are charged, those assets recovered through
interim forfeiture are managed by us.
“And the EFCC has a full-fledged directorate of assets
forfeiture and management that manages these assets. Normally, we engage estate
managers to manage these assets, and proceeds from the rents are kept in an
account with the Central Bank of Nigeria. And then at the end of the trial,
after the pronouncement of the court, whosoever is the victim, needs to be
restituted. And if what the law says is that it should be sold, then after the
sale of the assets, the proceeds, if it is for the federal government, will be
put in the consolidated revenue fund.”
Commenting on the delay in the prosecution of cases, Bawa
said the creation of special courts will not serve as an absolute solution.
He explained that some of the issues that cause delay in the
prosecution of cases, like “defence counsel trying to delay trials
unnecessarily”, are unavoidable.
The anti-graft czar, however, suggested that the employment
of new judges will help ease the task.
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