Other countries are laying claim to looted funds from Nigeria - FG

The federal government of Nigeria has accused Switzerland of robbing the country by demanding high percentages during the repatriation of looted funds. 

The minister of foreign affairs, Geoffrey Onyema, on Tuesday, September 11, accused Switzerland of 'daylight robbery', while adding that the process to recover looted fund is ridiculous.

He said: “For developing countries as ourselves, it’s so much more difficult – the kind of hurdles that we have to overcome.

“Large sums of money have been found in Jersey, for instance, and other countries are laying claim to it, because in getting to Jersey, it passed through different jurisdictions. We haven’t been able to get the money back.

“We got some money back from Switzerland, but my God! When you look at the details, I was shocked and extremely angry at the process of recovery. Percentages were paid out to all kinds of institutions.

“To me, this is daylight robbery that these countries are perpetrating, and of course playing on the fact that we’re not the United States. So, it’s something we keep harping on, that these countries have to do a lot more, because at the end of the day, they are condoning huge theft and are accessories after the fact in fact.

"When a country is making it difficult for legitimate owners to recover looted funds, then you’re just as guilty of theft as those that transferred the money in the first place. This is totally unacceptable and totally immoral.”

President Muhammadu Buhari said his administration will ensure judicious utilisation of recovered stolen public funds to address the nation’s socio-economic problems.

The president, who stated this when he received the report of the 3-man committee set up to audit recovered funds at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, on Tuesday, September 11, said loopholes for stealing public funds must be blocked.