FG Is Building Global Consensus On Asset Recovery – Malami

Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr Abubakar Malami, SAN said that Nigeria collaborates with various jurisdictions in its efforts to recover stolen assets stashed abroad.

Malami made this known at the Ninth session of the Conference of States Parties to the United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC) holding in Sharm El Sheik, Egypt.

This was contained in a statement by his Special Assistant on Media and Public Relation, Dr. Umar Jibrilu Gwandu, in which he quoted the AGF as having said that with Pakistan, State of Palestine, Peru, Saudi Arabia and Kenya, Nigeria submitted a draft resolution entitled “Enhancing access to and the use of Beneficial Ownership Information to facilitate the identification, recovery and return of assets”, to further highlight the importance of beneficial ownership transparency.

Malami also said that significant progress has been recorded in the efforts to combat corruption in Nigeria saying; “We have continued to make significant progress in our efforts to prevent and combat corruption, block leakages and recover our stolen assets”.

He noted that that new laws and acts have been enacted by Nigeria to better combat corruption in the country, adding that; “In realization that an effective Criminal Justice System is necessary for investigation and sanctioning corruption, Nigeria is implementing the Justice Sector Reform Strategy covering issues such as for investigating in actively International Cooperation Mechanisms, Mutual Legal Assistance and reform of the Criminal Justice System.

“We recently enacted a Mutual Legal Assistance Law in line with the recommendations from the UNCAC review, and also enacted the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit Act to create a stand-alone Financial Intelligence Unit,” he said.