Nigeria Committed To Recovery Of Stolen Assets – Malami Tells UN Conference

The Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, SAN has assured a United Nations gathering that Nigeria is making efforts to recover stolen assets stashed abroad.

He said the federal government was getting it done by collaborating with various jurisdictions home and overseas.

Malami disclosed this at the Ninth session of the Conference of States Parties to the United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC) holding in Sharm El Sheik, Egypt, according to statement by the Special Assistant on Media and Public Relations, OFMOJ, Dr. Umar Jibrilu Gwandu.

“We have continued to make significant progress in our efforts to prevent and combat corruption, block leakages and recover our stolen assets” Malami said.

According to the statement, Pakistan, State of Palestine, Peru, Saudi Arabia, Kenya and Nigeria have submitted a draft resolution entitled “Enhancing access to and the use of Beneficial Ownership Information to facilitate the identification, recovery and return of assets.”

The draft document explained how beneficial ownership transparency will help in the clamp down of corrupt practices.

Speaking on the significant progress by Nigeria in fighting corruption, the AGF listed the new laws and acts as examples.

“In realization that an effective Criminal Justice System is necessary for investigation and sanctioning corruption, Nigeria implementing the Justice Sector Reform Strategy covering issues such as for investigating is actively International Cooperation Mechanisms, Mutual Legal Assistance and reform of the Criminal Justice System”.

“We recently enacted a Mutual Legal Assistance Law in line with the recommendations from the UNCAC review, and also enacted the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit Act to create a stand-alone Financial Intelligence Unit,” he said.