By Tobias Lengnan Dapam, with Agency report
The Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr Ola Olukoyede, has called for urgent and unconditional return of Nigerian stolen assets stashed in foreign countries.
Olukoyede said this in a statement in Abuja on Wednesday by EFCC Spokesperson, Dele Oyewale.
Oyewale said that Olukoyede made this call at the ongoing 10th session of the Conference of State Parties (COSP), to the UN Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC) at the Georgia World Congress Centre, Atlanta, U.S.
According to him, the return of stolen assets warehoused in foreign countries, has become imperative for the growth of the economy and expansion of frontiers of development within and outside Nigeria.
He stated that economic and financial crimes have become transnational crimes and no nation serving as a custodian of stolen assets should hold on to them.
“We need the cooperation of all the countries that are custodians or in charge of warehousing all these stolen assets from Africa.
“It has become extremely important for us to see you as our collaborators, as countries that support us in the fight against corruption. Now, when you look at corruption, it has become a transnational crime.
“ If you are holding on to those assets, you are creating very difficult legal hurdles in recovering those assets. You are indirectly encouraging the perpetrators of the crimes we are talking about.
“And, when you encourage it in Africa, it has a tendency of affecting you too, because the kind of financial crimes we are talking about have become global in nature.
“So, it has become important for you to cooperate with us,” he said.
The EFCC’s boss, in a presentation made before a global audience on asset recovery efforts and successes of Nigeria so far, pointed out that Nigeria had “probably done much more than any other country, perhaps the whole world, in the area of asset recovery.
“We have been able to achieve something because of the legal and regulatory framework that the government of Nigeria has been able to put in place”.
He listed measures already taken to include, the enactment of the Proceeds of Crimes( Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022, use of extant laws on civil forfeiture of assets,
Others, he said, were banking reforms mandating bank customers to have a Bank Verification Number (BVN) for all transactions.
This, he said, would enable the professional activities of the EFCC and other anti-corruption agencies to trace, investigate and prosecute ill-gotten assets within and beyond Nigeria, as potent measures yielding optimal results in asset recovery.
“There is an aspect of our law that allows for civil forfeiture.
“Civil forfeiture is a situation where you will not necessarily get a criminal conviction of an offender but you can easily attach assets and forfeit the assets and that has greatly assisted us in asset recovery.
“There is another aspect that we have tried to put in place, a year ago.
