The Federal Government has asked the United Kingdom and other countries to provide intelligence on the assets of corrupt Nigerian politicians abroad for onward confiscation and recovery.
The Special Assistant to the President on Financial Crimes and Public Prosecution Compliance, Rotimi Oyedepo (SAN), made the appeal at the Cambridge International Symposium on Economic Crimes in the UK, which ended on September 8, 2024.
Oyedepo, who is attached to the Office of the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), said the Federal Government is ready to work diplomatically with other nations to recover Nigeria’s commonwealth stolen by corrupt politicians and stashed across the world.
He said, “The problem of recovery of unlawful assets is not internal but external. The majority of the proceeds of corruption are not invested in Nigeria. They are being transferred abroad to acquire properties, and properties are scattered everywhere across the globe.
“I am using this opportunity to extend hands of fellowship to you that inasmuch as you are using our Central Authority Unit to request assistance, when we send assistance to you, please reciprocate.
“When you see assets from somebody you know is politically exposed, and if you cannot commence the process of recovering it in your state (country), you can transfer such information to us and we will work together diplomatically to ensure that your nation and our nation will not be readily available to integrate proceeds of unlawful activities.”
Oyedepo, who also doubles as the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) prosecutor, said Nigeria has enough legal frameworks to trace and recover illegal and unlawful activities.
“In Nigeria, there are conviction-based forfeiture proceedings and there are also non-conviction-based forfeiture proceedings,” he told the gathering.
According to him, because we operate a constitutional democracy and the onus for the prosecution to prove beyond reasonable doubt every allegation, that principle of law is well-settled.
“When the jurisprudence of non-conviction-based proceedings was introduced into our legal system, it went through a lot of turbulence. The onus was on me to show and argue the constitutionality of this jurisprudence in Nigeria,” he said.
The senior advocate recalled that the first case where that happened was that of a former first lady and the trial court granted interim forfeiture of assets sought, but the order was appealed by the suspect who argued that the assets could not be seized since she had not been convicted of any offence.
“We saw this challenge, and the Court of Appeal graciously agreed with the state that the presumption of innocence and pendency of criminal trial are not applicable and that the jurisprudence involved in non-conviction-based forfeiture is the proceedings targeting the assets itself and not the suspect.
“The Supreme Court gave judicial blessing to non-convictional forfeiture in Nigeria.
“Through the instrumentality of that judgement and other legal frameworks in Nigeria, we are recovering massive proceeds of unlawful activities,” he said, citing a $44 million cash recovered from an apartment, $40 million worth of jewellery recovered from a former petrol minister, and other choice properties of unlawful activities forfeited.
