Money laundering - Britain recovers £40m Nigerian loot
London - The British government has recovered £40 million (N9.3bn) suspected to have been stolen by some corrupt Nigerian government officials, and has commence judicial procedure to transfer the recovered loot to Nigeria.
The money was recovered through the UK judicial system in the fight against money laundering, according to the Lord Major of London, David Lewis.
Mr Lewis told journalists in Abuja after visiting some ministries that the £40 million was different from the £150,000 confiscated from former governor of Plateau State, Chief Joshua Dariye, and just handed over to the Federal Government.
His words: “I gave two checks yesterday (Wednesday) to the Attorney-General of Nigeria and that was £150,000. That money was recovered through judicial channel in London from the former Governor of Plateau State.
“But I will tell you that there is something like £40 million more available in the judicial process in UK in different cases, about 16 prosecutions.
“Something like £40 million in addition will come to this country, but we need the co-operation of the judicial authorities in this country from the Attorney-General’s Office to return this money, which we very much look forward to receiving,” he said.
Mr. Lewis said there would be no condition attached to the return of the money, adding that once the judicial process was in accordance with the UK law, the loot would be returned.
The Mayor, who was in Nigeria to strengthen business links between the two countries, also said Nigeria required about $500 billion to tackle its infrastructural decay.
He said for Nigeria to achieve Vision 2020, it must liberalize its market, and change the perception already built about security and corruption to attract foreign investors.
On how Nigeria would get $500 billion to tackle the problem of infrastructure, he said: “An estimated amount of $500 billion is required, and this is not coming from any country. Infrastructure builds on finance in a number of different ways, sometimes through the capital market, banks loans, and stock exchange and through public private partnership.
“If you build in the best way, you will get results. It is not a question of borrowing the money from different countries. There are several ways of getting this money. I did not say Nigeria should borrow this money; they should devise a means of getting this through different financial institutions,” he said.
On the liberalization of Nigeria market to achieve Vision 2020, he said: “If you look at Nigeria economy for the past 10 years, there is no doubt that the economy is achieving a huge success. Inflation appears to be under control but there are challenges, everybody is aware of, security and corruption for instance.
“But I think there are more opportunities to grab and to achieve Vision 2020, these challenges must be addressed. If you wish to achieve Vision 2020, you need to liberalize your market.
“The perception of investment in this country needs to be more business friendly. So if you wish to attract foreign investors, you need to make the international communities trust and be happy in investing here rather than going somewhere else.
“You can make this country friendlier to investors, by changing the perception on security and corruption and getting up,” he said.
He said Nigeria and South Africa remained the major capital markets in Africa, adding that UK would be glad to partner with them and achieve mutual results.
The Mayor said the UK was interested in partnering with Nigeria in the power sector, adding that power was a major problem in Nigeria.
“We will love to partner and help Nigeria in relation to these matters and this could be achieved through international capital market and Public Private Partnership (PPP) among others,” he said.
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