of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Ibrahim Magu, on Thursday, said
only about 15 per cent of funds allegedly misappropriated by a former Minister
of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, had been recovered.
He said, “It is even more notorious than the so-called
Abacha loot because we have not seen anything yet. I’m sure what we have seen is
not more than may be 15 per cent.”
Magu, who
said the commission was working with the United Kingdom on her case, noted that
efforts were being made to extradite her back to Nigeria.
The
anti-corruption boss, who spoke during a courtesy visit of the principal
officers to Punch office on Thursday, vowed never to give up until all the money
stolen from the country was recovered.
He said, “We are working on the
process of Diezani’s extradition. But we have to allow them (the UK government)
because we are collaborating. There is the National Crime Agency and the Crown
Prosecution Service in London, and our colleagues, the Department of Justice and
the Federal Bureau of Investigation in America. We had cause to meet in London.
I was there myself for about a week. We are working not only on the Diezani
case; but the Diezani case has become a test case.
“I think it is going
to be a long time. That is why sometimes I think we should appeal to the
looters to return the loot. Come and tell the government, ‘This is what I have
stolen.’ Since you have voluntarily complied with the instruction to bring back
the loot, then the government will take a decision. I think it is the best
way to go about it, otherwise, the monies would be wasted.
“Diezani has a
lot of people who are well connected, like (Jide) Omokore who are international
businessmen. They have private aircraft and you can’t see any of them in
Nigeria. They went and kept them in Ghana, some of them. But we are working with
almost all law enforcement agencies in the world. They are all willing to work
with us because what I told them is, ‘As long as you have any (claim) of
criminality in Nigeria, call us.’
“We will go after the criminals because
we don’t wait for protocol. Delay is dangerous; when you delay you will not see
it. So, we are ready to cooperate with everybody and people have shown
willingness. Last time I went to the international convention, they said Nigeria
should show it experience. So, the whole world at the United Nations level wants
to hear our asset recovery experience.”
Magu noted that the National
Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission had been informed of the needs of the
anti-corruption agency, saying there would soon be an upgrade of
facilities.
He said the agency was also giving attention to the welfare
of its workers to avoid undue influence or temptation in the course of their
assignments.
The EFCC boss explained that the EFCC was making efforts to
involve experienced lawyers in order to reduce the rate of loss of court
cases.
