Buhari Traces Stolen Funds To US, UK, Switzerland, Others Including Dubai

Following President Mohammadu Buhari's declaration on his first day in Aso Villa office that he'll recover stolen funds after he inherited an almost empty treasury from his predecessor, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, the Federal Government has begun tracing looted Nigerian funds to foreign nations with the aim of recovering and repatriating them.

The United States has promised to assist in repatriating the looted funds from anywhere under the sun.

Looted funds stashed in foreign banks by corrupt Nigerians are to be recovered from places like the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Germany, British Virgin Islands and other places in the world where it believes corrupt officials have been stashing public funds will be returned home.

Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to the president, Mr. Femi Adesina has said the Federal Government’s investigation was meant to identify the individuals who engaged in corrupt practices and ascertain the sums of money involved with a view to repatriating them.

According to him, the Federal Government also plans to engage the services of foreign private investigators to help trace and find looted funds belonging to the people of Nigeria.

He said, “When the President met with the G7, the promise that the American President gave him was that Nigeria should just provide all the facts, the figures, the statistics, including the banks.

He promised that if Nigeria could make the information available, then the US will help in recovering the stolen funds.”

When asked specifically if the Federal Government had started identifying the banks, the presidential spokesman said, “Yes. In fact, the President said the government will spend the next three months identifying banks, individuals and monies that have been ferried out of this country."

The Federal Government may also go after property owned by public fund looters in London, Dubai, US, Saudi Arabia and other choice international real estate markets where Nigerians are known to be some of the biggest buyers.

It was also learnt that the Department for International Development, a UK government department responsible for administering overseas aid, had alerted the President on over N1.3tn stolen during the last administration, where it is kept and who the beneficiaries are.

This is not the first time the US woukd help Nigeria recover stolen funds as it will be recalled the US in March 2014 had ordered a freeze on $458m in assets stolen by the late Head of State, Gen. Sani Abacha, and his accomplices.

The US also named nine financial institutions – Citibank, Chase Manhattan Bank and Morgan Guaranty Trust Company, now JPMorgan Chase, and New York-based units of Britain’s Barclays Bank and Germany’s Commerz bank – as places where some of the Abacha loots were laundered.

And in similar vein, the Crown Prosecution Service in the United Kingdom had estimated former governor of Delta State, James Ibori’s loot stolen to be around $250m.

Ibori, who is currently serving jail term for corruption charges in a UK prison, was said to have bought six property in London, including a six-bedroom house with indoor pool in Hampstead for £2.2m and a flat opposite the nearby Abbey Road recording studios. There was also a property in Dorset, a £3.2m mansion in South Africa and further real estate in Nigeria.

He also owned a fleet of armoured Range Rovers costing £600,000, a £120,000 Bentley, a £300,000 Mercedes Maybach, and a private jet for £12m.

President Buhari said the last administration mismanaged the economy while stating that it was a disgrace that state governments in the country can’t pay salaries; hence, the need to recover looted funds wherever they may be hidden.

*Culled and edited from Punch *

Hmmm.....wahala oooh!...I guess the days of looting is over for Nigeria!..THANK GOD if this report is accurate.#giveusaction