The United Kingdom has joined voices with the United State and China in a commitment to ensuring that funds stolen from Nigeria and hidden in bank accounts within their borders are speedily returned to official accounts of the federal republic of Nigeria.
Geoffrey Onyeama, the minister of foreign affairs, stated this Thursday during a post-UN general assembly press conference in Abuja.
Onyeama explained that the federal government had earlier identified some countries where Nigeria’s funds were stashed away and remained commitment to repatriating looted funds stashed in foreign banks to contribute in boosting the receding Nigerian economy.
“A lot of countries where Nigeria’s stolen money were lodged made restitution and are trying to repatriate the money. This makes it much easier when there is political buy-in by leaders of countries where the money are kept than going through the rigors of legal processes,” he said.
According to him, President Muhammadu Buhari held meetings with US president Barack Obama; Theresa May, the UK prime minister, and Xi Jinping, the president of China, among others on the repatriation of looted funds by government officials in previous administrations back Nigerian government coffers to be judiciously used for common good.
The minister explained that the world leaders pledged their commitments and cooperation to ensuring speedy repatriation of the funds to Nigeria.
He quoted President Muhammadu Buhari as saying that he was “committed to ensuring prompt and unconditional recovery of the country’s looted fund, and that fighting corruption remains of prime importance to our administration and that our efforts in fighting corruption are yielding positive results including significant stolen assets recoveries.
“I noted that speedy and unconditional return of stolen public assets should be the focus of the anti-corruption conference to be hosted by the U.S. and UK in Washington next year,” the president was also quoted as saying.
