The federal government has accused Switzerland of “robbing” Nigeria in the course of recovering funds looted from the country. Nigeria recently signed an agreement with Switzerland for the release of three hundred and twenty-two million dollars said to have been stolen by Sani Abacha, former military head of state.
This is just one of the previous recoveries made by both current and past administrations of the said loot as well as the others, usually through signed treaties.
But speaking at the second International conference on combating illicit financial Flows (IFF) and enhancing asset recovery for sustainable development in Abuja on Tuesday, Geoffrey Onyema, minister of foreign affairs, said the difficulty in recovering the loot is usually “mind-boggling.”
He stated that in its attempt to recover stolen funds from Switzerland, Nigeria was confronted with harrowing experiences, which saw some percentages of the looted fund paid to companies and individuals in Switzerland.
Onyeama added that when a country is “making it difficult” for legitimate owners to recover looted funds, then the country is just as guilty of theft as those that transferred the money in the first place, describing such actions as unacceptable and totally immoral.
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