RECOVERED LOOT: Why FG did not name looters —Presidency

The Federal Government said, yesterday, it had
made cash recoveries totaling
N78,325,354,631.82; $185,119,584.61;
£3,508,355.46 and €11, 250, from looters of
public treasury, from May 29, 2015 to May 25,
2016.

The disclosure was in fulfillment of President
Muhammadu Buhari’s promise to make public
the details of the cash recoveries on his first
anniversary in office. The President had said, in
his broadcast to the nation on the first
anniversary, that the details would be provided
by the Federal Ministry of Information. Minister
of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai
Mohammed, in a statement, also disclosed that
Recoveries Under Interim Forfeiture (cash and
assets) during the period totaled
N126,563,481,095.43; $9,090,243,920.15;
£2,484,447.55.

According to the statement, said to have been
based on the interim report on the financial and
assets recoveries made by the various
government agencies from May 29, 2015 to May
25, 2016, the Funds Awaiting Return From
Foreign Jurisdictions totaled 321,316,726.1
Dollars; 6,900,000 Pounds Sterling and
11,826.11 Euros (Eleven thousand, eight hundred
and twenty six Euros, 11 cents).

It showed that Non-Cash Recoveries (Farmlands,
Plots of Land, Uncompleted Buildings,
Completed Buildings, Vehicles and Maritime
Vessels) during the period total 239.

Meanwhile, Smart360news has been made to
understand that the reason why names of looters
were not disclosed was because of the need to
avoid the potential of truncating the cooperation
that was already being enjoyed in the drive to
recover looted funds - in the first instance - from
some of those from whom funds are being
recovered, just as the government did not want
to jeopardize the willingness of others to return
funds in their possession.

The following, the statement said, is the
breakdown of the recovered cash and assets:
In a






related development, the Presidency, last night,
defended its decision not to release the names
of those who returned the funds. It cited the fact
that while some of those who returned money
were not in any way guilty of any offence,
publishing the names could deter those
contemplating returning ill-gotten funds in their
custody.
A top Presidency source, who spoke to Sunday
Vanguard , anonymously, said the administration
was happy to have recovered as much as $9
billion without going to court as he said that a
number of people still willing to return could be
dissuaded by the publication of the names.

“This thing is ongoing and one of the reasons why
we did not release the names was that without
going to court we were able to retrieve all that
amount of money. If you release names, other
people who want to do voluntary returns will not
do so. What we need is the money and not the
names”, he stated.

“Secondly, many of those who returned the
money are not necessarily guilty. For instance, if
my party gave me money to go and campaign in
an election, how am I to know that that money
was from an illicit source?

“For instance if money is given to a newspaper
for publication, you cannot criminalise the
newspaper because it did not know where the
money came from. If the newspaper returns the
money would it be fair to publicise the name of
the newspaper.

“If you listen to the mob you will just end up in
the ditch. The practical thing is that we want
more money to come in. And we don’t even
know what are the terms of the agreement by
which anybody returned money.

“So, for those who are saying that we ought to
release the names, they got it completely wrong;
it would be counterproductive. In fact, some
people could go to court suing us for defamation
and libel and then the whole essence would be
lost and all people would be talking would be
about the court cases. That is not what Nigeria
needs now. What Nigeria needs now is to be
focused and “we believe we have taken the right
step in letting Nigerians know how much has
been recovered, $9 billion without going to court''