The Acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ibrahim Magu on Wednesday said it was difficult to say exactly how much was looted from Nigeria.
He blamed it on poor record keeping, adding that previous administrations’ lack of political will accounted for the poor rate of asset recovery from abroad.
“It is difficult to estimate what Nigeria has lost because we have poor record keeping system,” he said.
This is as a Queens Counsel (QC) Phillip Hackett said the United Kingdom might be reluctant to return Nigeria’s looted funds because of fear that they could be re-looted.
According to him, Nigeria has only recovered a fraction of its loot hidden in the UK.
“How much money has been recovered? Practically nothing. Nigeria has recovered so little,” said Hacket.
He was the lead speaker at a session, with the theme: “Institutionalising the war against corruption – new approaches to assets tracing and recovery” in the Annual General Conference of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) in Abuja,
The session, which was chaired by Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption (PACAC) Executive Secretary Prof Bolaji Owasanoye, featured Magu, represented by EFCC’s Director of Legal and Prosecution Department Chile Okoroama.
Also on the panel were a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) Chief Mike Ozekhome, former Civil Liberties Organisation (CLO) president Mrs Ayo Obe and a lawyer, Ehi Esoimeme.
According to Hackett, the UK’s attitude towards Nigeria is that it cannot be relied on to account for returned assets.
“The UK position is that Nigeria cannot be trusted with its money. That’s what underpins it (poor asset return rate), and it has to be addressed,” he said.
He, however, said UK laws have been reviewed to make asset recovery and return easier.
Magu criticised lawyers, some of who he said aid money laundering, urging the NBA to discipline its senior erring members.
“Lawyers have been involved in money laundering; laundering of proceeds of crime. When they were asked to register with the Special Control Unit Against Money Laundering (SVUML) for regulation, they went to court. NBA said it could regulate itself. But how far has NBA gone in regulating itself? That is the issue.
“I think the NBA Disciplinary Committee should be up and doing. I get embarrassed when NBA descends heavily on lawyers who are not considered to be significant, but they turn a blind eye to what big-time counsel are doing.
“I think they have to do their work without looking at faces, no matter whose ox is gored. That is the only way that we can have confidence and respect for the Disciplinary Committee,” the EFCC chief said.
Responding to a question on why the Federal Government pays so little (five per cent) to lawyers who help in asset recovery, Owasanoye said lawyers who handled such cases in the past were paid billions with nothing to show for it.
He said the NBA also did nothing to rein in such lawyers who pocketed billions for doing no work.
Owasanoye said: “The NBA as presently designed – its mindset – is not in a position to fight corruption, unless you want to deceive yourselves. I’m a member of the NBA. It’s my position, it’s not a secret. Every time I’ve had a chance to speak at NBA conferences, I always make the point using facts.
“If the NBA will not take a position and deal with the issue, we’re going to be going round in circles. And the implication is that majority of the practitioners are going to be left in the fringes. They will not be able to survive.
“It behoves the NBA to create mechanisms that will assure the public that it is dealing with the issue. Otherwise you stigmatise the entire profession for the sins of a few.”
The PACAC Executive Secretary denied Ozekhome’s allegations that money recovered from abroad was being re-looted, saying all the cash recoveries were kept in a dedicated account and that none was spent without appropriation.
Owasanoye said anyone alleging money had been re-looted under the Buhari administration should provide evidence.
Ozekhome accused the Federal Government of engaging in selective war against corruption, adding that the NBA is silent in the face of abuses of rule of law.
“The NBA has been sleeping. The NBA, to me, with all respect, has been greatly compromised. And I think the time has come for us lawyers to make up our minds, that if the incoming executive wants to go the way of the last NBA, there will be need to split the NBA from the old order to a new one.
“We’re no longer having the NBA championing the cause of the common man in this country. People cannot even speak. Everybody is looking over their shoulders,” he said.
He decried the fact that All Progressives Congress (APC) welcomes people who had been previously accused of corruption and declares them “sinless” once they decamp to the party.
“In as much as I agree that once you catch a corrupt person you should prosecute the person, you cannot overlook the corruption in your own system,” Ozekhome said.
