NEWS HEADLINE

By Laolu Akande New York, NY, USA

ome of the international independent experts involved in Nigeria's efforts to recover looted funds stashed away by corrupt leaders have expressed concern that Nigeria embarked on a selective recovery effort which ensured that about 80% of what is recoverable was ignored.

It was also discovered that certain civil laws which could have been used to sue the professionals-who aided the looting process on behalf of corrupt leaders- like bankers, accountants and lawyers involved in the recovery were left untapped

Specifically and most significantly, investigations has now revealed that the Obasanjo administration refused offers by the experts, including those from UN sources, to trace monies looted from Nigeria during the Babangida regime, but encouraged the pursuit of Abacha stolen funds.

A top American operative who spoke at a closed door session to which this reporter was invited recently said at least about $120b have now been discovered as Nigeria's wealth stolen since the country's independence. Much of that, he said is lying in some 20 known British banks among other banks in Switzerland, Luxembourg and other places in Europe.

According to the source, who is also a UN expert on asset recovery, although about $5 to 6b of the stolen funds were stashed away by Late General Sani Abacha, General Ibrahim Babangida looted almost $25b.

The source who said he has visited Nigeria when the recovery exercise began, had also addressed the US Congress on occasions about the Nigeria asset recovery effort and what the international community should be doing to nations who are victims of such corruption.

According to him, two years ago the amount of the stolen wealth of Nigeria known to international experts was thought to be $40b. But new figures now coming out has now shown a staggering rise in that estimate.

He told the US House that "the dimension of the theft has been staggering." That was in 2000. He said the looted funds were "misappropriated oil revenue, misappropriated international assistance, misappropriated international loan money, kickbacks to the government officials involved in purchasing, and special arrangements for currency conversion."

According to the expert, "Nigeria's wealth is just sitting down there primarily in UK and all efforts are not being tapped to fully recover them. There are ways and options that are not being pursued. Even the UN has offered to help. But Nigeria's president's message to the international community was that you can go after Abacha, but not IBB's money."

It would be recalled that when President Obasanjo first visited the US after he was sworn in as civilian president, he told an audience in Boston that there is no evidence of Babangida's loot and so he cannot ask for any investigation except evidence is produced.

However it is believed among international experts that no other Nigerian leader has stolen Nigeria's wealth as much as Babangida and also that with the right kind of political will, a competent lawyer and experts put on the case, the money could be recovered.

At his 2000 testimony to the US House, the source said American banks were also not left out. According to him, the private banking department of Citibank-a United States-handled the money of members of Abacha's family, but yet the bank could say it had done nothing wrong since the offense was not committed in the US. He then asked the US Congress to make the handling of suspect funds illegal and so force banks to be more diligent in deciding which funds to accept.

At the testimony he also observed that "it is deeply offensive to know that the former leaders of Nigeria are fabulously rich and living in London and that they and their money are beyond the legal reach of those who would help the Nigerian people rebuild their country."

He expressed support for the call of the head of the British chapter of Transparency International Jeremy Pope who said it should be that banks which help hide the money flowing from corruption should be sued by governments who are victims of such corruption.