The federal government on Wednesday revealed that over one billion dollars have been recovered as looted funds by the present administration of President Muhammadu Buhari in the last seven and half years.
Mr. Abubakar Malami who is the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice made this disclosure known while briefing reporters at the end of the weekly Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari at the State House, Abuja, said $1 billion looted funds had so far been recovered by the Muhammadu Buhari-led administration from May, 2015 to date.
According to him, the current administration has multiplied the success rate at which the anti-corruption agencies have been securing convictions, citing the case of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), which recorded 3,000 convictions in 2022 alone.
Commenting on the issue of recovery looted funds, Malami stated that the funds had been deployed to various sectors of the economy, including poverty alleviation.
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He said: ‘As I stated, in terms of prevention, we have succeeded and recorded tremendous success, to the extent that as at the time we came on board as a government, for example, only 109 convictions were recorded from the inception of major agencies of government that were saddled with the responsibility of the fight against corruption, spanning over a period of more than 10 years as at the time we came.
‘But today, we are recording successes in terms of convictions to the extent that a single agency of government, if you take for example, the EFCC, within a year, I’m talking of 2022, we have recorded over 3,000 convictions.
‘So if you are looking at corruption from the perspective of conviction, if your yardstick is to determine what success is in terms of convictions have been recorded, the yardstick is that we have succeeded in moving the convictions to the next level from the point of 109 convictions in over 10 years, by previous administrations, to a point of over 3000 convictions within a year by the government of President Muhammadu Buhari.
‘Then if you are looking at it from other perspectives, for example, perspectives related to the recovery of the looted assets, the government of President Muhammadu Buhari has succeeded in recovering around $1 billion from its inception to date.
‘You will recall, with precision, that in 2017, over 300 million was indeed recovered from Switzerland, which monies were eventually deployed in the reduction of poverty, in line with the commitment of President Muhammadu Buhari, which in effect gave rise to what we had as NPower, Trader Money, among other multiple programme that were put in place by the government of President Muhammadu Buhari,’ he said.
Speaking on the approval of FEC for the National Anti-corruption Strategy Document, Malami explained the same document had been adopted for the period 2017-2022 and had made the fight against corruption really successful, hence the decision of FEC to allow it to run the 2022-2026.