British legal system is delaying the repatriation of Nigeria's stolen wealth from the UK

NIGERIA'S hopes of getting all her looted funds deposited in UK banks is proving difficult due to the country's complicated legal system that has resulted in many of the cases getting bogged down in judicial tangles.

 

Last month, British prime minister David Cameron declared on the eve of a global anti-corruption summit in London that Nigeria was fantastically corrupt. Rather than take offence at the comments, President Muhammadu Buhari said he believed they are true and the way forward is for the UK to return all of Nigeria's money which politicians have lodged in its banks.

 

Prime Minister Cameron agreed to step up action to return Nigeria's stolen money but so far the process has been labouriously slow. Yesterday, Paul Albright, the British high commissioner to Nigeria, said the UK government is doing everything it can to help but the judicial process is slowing down the process.

 

Speaking while paying a courtesy call on the Alake of Egbaland, Oba Adedotun Aremu Gbadebo at his Ake palace, in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, Mr Albright said the efforts would continue though. He added that President Buhari made it abundantly clear at the last anti-corruption summit in London the urgency the country attaches to the repatriation of the stolen money.

 

Mr Albright said: “President Buhari made that very simple when he was in London. He was in London for anti-corruption summit, which my Prime Minister hosted.

 

"We need international action to fight corruption, we need all the looted funds from around the world, including the UK and elsewhere, to return to the rightful place which is with the people of Nigeria. The United Kingdom is doing everything that we can to ensure that those funds are returned to Nigeria."

 

He added that the UK has no interest, no intention of keeping that money and wants it to go back to Nigeria. According to Mr Albright, the United Kingdom, just like Nigeria, is a country which respects the rule of law, with an independent judicial process, which is delaying matters.