Nigeria anti-graft agencies can’t account for recovered loot – Saraki

Bukola Saraki

The Senate President, Bukola Saraki, has said some recovered stolen funds can not be accounted for by the agencies that investigated and recovered them.

He said this at a retreat tagged ‘Strategic Retreat on Tracking the Progress of Anti-Corruption Bills in the National Assembly’ in Abuja on Tuesday.

He said this was the reason some countries do not have confidence in Nigeria to properly manage asset recovered from looters.

“In related matters, Nigeria is finding it difficult to convince other nations to return funds looted from our treasury. This is because of the other nations’ exasperation over the management of returned assets.

“Only recently, Mr. President inaugurated a committee to audit all assets recovered by various government agencies.

“An ad hoc committee of the Senate, which is investigating some administrative infractions in the Executive, has discovered that many properties recovered from a fugitive from the law have not been accounted for by the investigating agency. This gives the global community great concern about the commitment of Nigeria to the anti-corruption drive,” he said.

While emphasising that the retreat was important now due to the peculiar position of Nigeria in the global anti-corruption tapestry, he stressed that the commitment by President Muhammadu Buhari towards curtailing corruption in the country was not in doubt.

Mr. Saraki said the National Assembly had been strident about the opacity surrounding management of recovered funds and also in providing legislative synergy, as a result of which he said the lawmakers made anti-corruption one of the pillars or charters of service and incorporated it in the agenda of both the Senate and House of Representatives.

According to him, every bill that has come before the National Assembly and has the purpose of contributing towards the anti-corruption drive has received expeditious attention.

He added that the retreat was organised to appreciate the stage of each of the bills in order for the two chambers to increase the cooperation they had and build consensus on them.