Looted funds recovered by the Muhammadu Buhariadministration
will be kept in a special account, reports say.
Details
of how the funds are spent will also be made public, Chairman of the
Presidential Advisory Committee against Corruption, Professor Itse
Sagay said.
“An account has been set up for it and at an
appropriate time, what is going to be done with the money will be made public.
The amount that is available in that account will be announced and what will be
done with the money will be publicly announced,”Sagay said on Sunday, June 5, 2016.
“Regarding the funds frozen under the interim
forfeiture, the Federal Government can’t touch it for now because certain cases
have not been concluded and the forfeiture is interim because technically, the
court can order the release to the owners if the occasion demands it but if it
goes the other way, there will be a permanent forfeiture order and that is when
the properties would accrue to the government and would therefore be used for
the benefit of Nigerians.
“On
the legal side, I don’t see the problem that is being talked about because once
a person is going to be charged to court for corruption or illegally acquiring
resources, there is no liability in announcing it.
“After all, we have been seeing the names of
all those accused and charged. So, the main reason is to encourage others, who
are still hiding their loot and speculating what to do, to come out and hand
over the loot so that the country can recover more of what has been stolen.
“There are some people who actually received
those assets and money without knowing that it was stolen or whose knowledge of
the source would be very difficult to establish.
“So, if you are in a situation, where you thought your political party had raised money legitimately and you were given an amount for the purpose of campaign, then you may have a strong case against any criminal charge like the newspapers, who have received money, but you may be willing to return the money having found out that it was illegitimately acquired,” he added.
Sagay had earlier supported Buhari’s decision not to publish
the names of looters despite promising to do so.
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