Recovered loot used to fund annual budget – Minister

Within the last three years, looted funds recovered by the federal government were used to partly finance annual budgets.

Abubakar Malami (SAN), the attorney-general of the federation and minister of justice said this during a stakeholders’ validation retreat to finalise the second Nigeria Open Government Partnership National Action Plan.

He said the federal government had intensified its anti-corruption war by approving the harmonised national anti-corruption strategy.

Malami explained that the asset recovery and management unit in the federal ministry of justice served as the secretariat responsible for the implementation of NACS.

He stated that high level transparency in asset recovery had been achieved by the federal government in the last three years.

He said “With respect to the commitment under anti-corruption thematic, the federal government has approved the harmonised NACS.

“Greater transparency in asset recovery has been recorded in the past three years and these have been applied towards the implementation of Nigeria’s annual budget as well as in social investment for the poor.”

Tayo Aduloju, a senior fellow of the Nigerian Economic Summit Group, said there was a need to eliminate corruption in the country.
Aduloju who is the incoming co-chair, non-state actors of the Open Government Partnership National Steering Committee said, “I will not attempt to emphasise the value of OGP as it is self-evident.

“The single most important ingredient in the recipe for success is transparency because transparency builds trust, and trust is the foundation for building strong societies and nations.”