UK assures Buhari that it will return all of Nigeria's looted funds stashed away in its banks

BRITAIN has agreed to return all the funds looted by Nigerian politicians stashed in its bank as part of a new commitment to combating corruption and addressing the age-long practise of its banks being a haven for stolen Nigerian money.

 

Last week, President Muhammadu Buhari attended an anti-corruption summit in London hosted by British prime minister David Cameron. In the run-up to the summit, Mr Cameron described Nigeria as fantastically corrupt and in response, President Buhari he agreed and would appreciate it if Britain returned all of Nigeria's stolen loot.

 

Over the weekend, justice minister Abubakar Malami, said that the UK government has shown its commitment towards repatriating funds stolen from Nigeria. He added that the UK expressed commitment towards repatriating Nigeria’s looted funds during a bilateral meeting between the two nations.

 

However, Mr Malami said there was no estimate of how much of the Nigeria’s funds stashed in the UK, but it has been compiled for certainty. He added that apart from the meetings which Nigeria had with the UK, there were no bilateral talks between Nigeria and other nations.

 

Mr Malami said: “There was no sideline talks as such but then there has been a bilateral meeting, other than the conference, in which express commitment has been shown by the leadership of the UK towards the idea of loot recovery. The UK has shown extra commitment apart from the resolution that was unanimously passed at the conference and Nigeria was treated as a priority in terms of execution of such commitment.”

 

While giving the assurance that Nigeria would soon start reaping the benefits of the international conference, the minister admitted that the resolution reached with other nations in London was not within the nation’s exclusive control. A 34-paragraph communique issued at the end of the London conference was captured under the three sub-themes of exposing corruption, punishing the corrupt and supporting those who have suffered from corruption and driving out corruption.

 

Repatriation of proceeds of corruption to the victim nation is part of the resolution reached at the conference. It also committed to supporting a broader use of the global and regional asset recovery inter-agency networks to obtain investigative and legal assistance in tracing and freezing the proceeds of corruption.