FEC okays repatriation of $321m Abacha loot

The Federal Executive Council (FEC) has given the go ahead for the Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, to sign agreement on behalf of the Federal Government for the repatriation of $321 million Abacha loot from Switzerland.

Malami submitted the memo for FEC’s consideration at its Wednesday’s meeting presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari at the presidential villa, Abuja.

Briefing State House corespondents after the meeting, the Attorney General reiterated that both the Nigerian and Swiss governments were substantially in agreement on the recovery of the money from Switzerland.

He said the decision to seek FEC approval was reached during negotiations for the repatriation of the funds.

Malami said the agreement for the repatriation would now be signed in December.

He said: “As you are aware, the Federal Government has been making efforts to recover stolen funds, loot, assets and the efforts have been indeed yielding fruits particularly as it relates to local recoveries.

“A memo has been presented to council this afternoon by the office of the Attorney General which is intended to shift focus to international recovery.

“Before going into the memo, I think it is important to bring to your attention that recently, about a week ago, we succeeded in recovering $85million relating to Malabu issues from U.K.

“And then, now, there exists a forum, that is Global Assets Recovery Forum taking place in December in US and we are looking towards that.

“We are in agreement substantially with the Swiss for the recovery of additional sum of $321million.

“That memorandum of understanding has been substantially agreed between Nigeria and Swiss. We intend to now execute or to sign off the agreement during the global forum on assets recovery coming up December.

“The intention of the memo, one is to seek the approval of the council to allow the Attorney General to sign the agreement on behalf of the Government of the Federation of Nigeria.

“Two, is to develop an instrument of ratification which will now give the Attorney General, the powers to ensure the repatriation of the funds.

“It is collectively agreed upon between Nigeria and Swiss that we on own part should seek the approval of council to ratify the MoU as agreed, and they on their own part too, procure the instrument of ratification that will now give the respective officers of the two countries the desired power and effect to now sign off on the agreement.

“The memo has accordingly been agreed and approved by the council. The implication of which is that the MoU as negotiated between Nigeria and Swiss has been agreed and ratified by council and then the Attorney General has been mandated to execute the agreement that will see to the repatriation of the &321million and added to it to develop the instrument of ratification that will be expected from both sides of the divide which will constitute the basis for the signing of the agreement in December in US during the global forum on assists recovery.”

Also speaking, Minster of Investment, Trade and Industry, Okechukwu Enelama, expatriated on the newly released World Bank ranking on the ease of doing business ranking which moved Nigeria up 24 places.

According to him, “In the last 10 years or so, Nigeria has been sliding backward but as you know one of the key priority of this government is creating the enabling  environment and making it easier for people to do business.

“The World Bank has been following up to see what we are doing. The result that came out yesterday (Tuesday) show that we have moved 24 places and you will recall that the Preident had set a target of 20 places.

“We are delighted that we have exceeded the target. We are also delighted that this marks a turning point because we believe we are now on a journey in the right direction. We are heading forward.”