16th July, 2018
Amb. Audu Kadiri, Permanent Representative of Nigeria to the UN in Geneva has stressed the need for continued collaboration with the international community in the identification and repatriation of illegal assets to the country.
Kadiri stated this in a statement on Sunday in Bern following an Expert Workshop on anti-corruption and human rights, organised by the UN.
The envoy said that such collaboration would further boost government’s anti-corruption campaign which had continued to yield positive response locally and internationally.
“Nigeria has redoubled its efforts to trace and recover public funds looted and stashed abroad by corrupt Nigerians and their foreign accomplices”
“As a result, a prominent pillar of Nigerians foreign policy has been the pursuit and recovery of looted funds in foreign jurisdictions”
“Government will, therefore, continue to advance the objective of Assets recovery and the stemming of illicit financial flows from the country,” he said.
Kadiri’s presentation at the workshop also focused on government’s anti-corruption policies and institutions as well as the prosecution of those engaged in corrupt practices.
On June 24, Nigeria kick-started a plan to partner with foreign consultants, comprising legal practitioners and other experts in Switzerland on a voluntary offshore asset repatriation.
Mr Abubakar Malami, the Minister of Justice, told NAN that that under the scheme, experts would collaborate with the Swiss Government to target funds that have not been identified in ongoing investigations.
Since 2015, 322 million dollars looted funds have been repatriated from Switzerland.