Sultan of Sokoto Queries Federal Govt on Recovered Loots
- The conversation surrounding recovered loots in Nigeria seems to have been revived in recent times
- The Sultan of Sokoto has weighed in on the issue asking the federal government to show how it spent the monies
- There have been loud cries from some Nigerians that the monies recovered have since been re-looted
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The Sultan of Sokoto, Muhammadu Sa’ad Abubakar III, on Tuesday, May 25 urged the federal government to explain to Nigerians how much loots it had recovered and what they were being used for.
He spoke in Sokoto yesterday at the zonal dialogue with stakeholders on the National Ethics and Integrity Policy, for the northwest zone.
The Sultan, represented by the Wazirin Sokoto, Professor Sambo Wali Junaidu, said keeping mute on the recovered loots would spell doom for the fight against corruption in the country.
Source: Twitter
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Daily Trust quoted him as saying:
“The government owes Nigerians an explanation, we want to know how much billions of naira was recovered from our past leaders. Where the monies are and what are they doing with them?
“This explanation is necessary considering the state of our education and other infrastructure like roads which need serious government attention.”
He said the founders of the Sokoto Caliphate had written many books on corruption and how it could be addressed using Islamic ways.
The Sultan urged Nigerian leaders to obtain copies of those books in order to be guided in getting to tackling corruption.
Recall that Transparency Information Technology Initiative, also known as TransparencIT, a civic technology organization, had in June 2020, stated that there is no public information on how the government utilized the recovered funds from the Abacha loot.
At the time, the group said the federal government had recovered a total of $3.6 billion stolen by the former Head of State, Late General Sani Abacha.
Civil society groups have lamented over the years that the huge funds recovered so far have not translated to anything meaningful as every individual in the value chain of repatriation seems to be interested in taking a deep bite from the loaf.
In 2017, there was public outrage over a questionable payment by Abubakar Malami, Nigeria’s Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF), to some lawyers as reported by The Cable.
Legit.ng had earlier reported that Malami, on Tuesday, May 25 appeared before the House of Representatives committee investigating the status of recovered loots.
The Office of the AGF was indicted by the lawmakers for receiving funds from Nigeria's recovered loots, instead of the Consolidated Revenue Funds.
Adejoro Adeogun, the chairman of the committee, accused Malami of being complicit in the funding of the budget of his office with money from the recovered loots.
Meanwhile, the federal government has confirmed that the British government has formally paid the £4,214,017.66 looted funds recovered from family members and associates of former Delta state governor, James Ibori, into its designated account.
Malami confirmed the development on Tuesday, May 18 in a statement sent to journalists.
Source: Legit.ng
