Retrieving Nigeria's Looted Funds Is a Priority - Presidential Aide

According to President Buhari's Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, the foreign search for looted funds that belong to Nigeria is part of the mandate Buhari was tasked with at the recent G7 summit in Germany

President Buhari's Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina has reacted to recent statements that the government will ensure it retrieves looted funds kept in foreign banks.

Speaking in an interview with Saturday Punch, Adesina said the search for the funds, which are kept in Switzerland, the United Kingdom, United States, France, Germany, British Virgin Islands, Liechtenstein and Luxembourg, will not be limited to these countries alone.

“The search will not only cover UK, US, Switzerland, Germany and other known havens for Nigerian looted funds but will cover everywhere under the sun. Anywhere and everywhere that the looted funds are, we have an assurance from the United States of America to assist us to repatriate these funds from anywhere under the sun,” he said.

According to report, the Federal Government’s investigation is meant to identify the individuals involved in corrupt practices and ascertain the sums of money involved with a view to retrieving them.

It was gathered that anti-corruption agencies play a vital role in the corruption fight, which is targeted at corrupt government officials in the recent past administration and their private sector collaborators, among others.

Adesina said that the Federal Government plans to engage the services of foreign private investigators who will trace and find looted funds belonging to the people of Nigeria.

“Everything that needs to be done to get all those funds repatriated will be done, including engaging private investigators,” the Presidential spokesperson said.

Buhari had lamented that the Goodluck Jonathan administration left behind a near empty treasury. According to Adesina, the foreign search for looted funds that belong to Nigeria is part of the mandate Buhari was tasked with at the recent G7 summit in Germany.

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.”

“The assurance the President has given is that within the next three months, we have to concentrate on getting those monies back to the government coffers.”

A few days ago, Buhari had said that his administration has received firm assurances of cooperation from the US and other countries in his bid to recover funds stolen from Nigeria.