Looted funds: Osinbajo pushes for stiffer sanctions against banks

Coming against the backdrop that about fifty-five government officials and some private businessmen aided the looting of N1.35 from the treasury of Nigeria between 2006 and 2013, Acting President of Nigeria, Prof Yemi Osinbajo on Monday pushed for sanctions against banks aiding looting of funds.

He made the remark at the old Banquet Hall of the State House, Abuja, during the Conference on Promoting International Co-operation in Combating Illicit Financial Flow and Enhancing Asset Recovery to Foster Sustainable Development.

“There is no way that transfer of these assets can happen without a handshake between the countries that they are transferred and the international banking institutions in the countries in which they are transferred. There is no way it will happen without some form of connivance.”

Osinbajo stated that there is the need at somehow delegitimizing those kind of financial institutions and criminalizing them, so that banks and financial institutions that actually engage in this be called out and made to face the consequences of engaging in criminal practices. “If that isn’t done we are not likely to go very far,” he added.

According to him, proceeds from political corruption has not attracted the same outrage that proceeds from narcotics and trafficking in persons have attracted internationally.

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“It took years for some people to agree that when somebody loot money where people make decent living that is more criminal than crime against humanity, more dangerous than trafficking in drugs,” the acting President added.

Speaking earlier, Chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption (PACAC), Prof. Itse Sagay, said a study revealed that between 2006 and 2013, 55 top government officials and private businessmen illicitly diverted a total of N1.35 trillion roughly at that time $7.5 billion to themselves at the expense of ordinary Nigerian citizens.

“These included trillions of naira squandered in fuel subsidy scam, billions of naira in Dasukigate and hundreds of millions of dollars taken from the NNPC by a former minister to bribe election officials in 2015. The list goes on.”

According to him, one-third of the stolen money could have been devoted to several relevant projects in the country. He said because of the looting, Nigeria has the largest number of abandoned projects in the world.