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| President Muhammadu Buhari |
The Minister of Foreign Affairs,
Geoffrey Onyeama, has assured Nigerians that negotiations are ongoing
with a number of countries on the modalities for the repatriation of
some looted funds stashed abroad.
The minister stated that the Federal
Government had been in touch with Switzerland, which he said, had
earlier repatriated $700m to Nigeria. He noted that another $300m that
was recovered would soon be repatriated to Nigeria.
Speaking in an interview with
journalists in Abuja, Onyeama stated that the Federal Government was in
discussion with the United Kingdom, the United States, among other
foreign governments around the world, on how all looted funds could be
recovered.
He said, “We are in touch with
Switzerland; they have recently recovered quite a significant amount of
money and I met last week with Swiss representatives to work out the
modality for the repatriation of the funds.
“The Swiss government has already
repatriated over $700m from (the late Gen. Sani) Abacha loot and that
agreement has been reached on how the money would be applied.
“They have also now recovered in the
same context another $300m of which there is ongoing discussion to have
that repatriated as well. There are discussions with other countries;
United Kingdom for instance, as you all know, is one of the countries we
are discussing with on how to recover looted funds.
The minister explained that the goodwill
generated by President Muhammadu Buhari’s visits to the US and other
countries had helped in getting various nations to cooperate with
Nigeria on the loot recovery drive.
-Punch
