The country will receive additional $750 million “Abacha loot”, the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, has said.
Malami, who spoke at an interactive session with the House of Representatives Committee on Justice, yesterday said his ministry would also recover £6.9 million “Ibori loot”.
He said: “In respect of of the recovery of looted assets, the ministry will engage in a Mutual Legal Assistance Agreements or other bilateral and multilateral instruments to seek cooperation with other jurisdictions to ensure the repatriation of illicitly- acquired assets in foreign jurisdictions.
“The collaboration will equally involve the engagement of foreign-based counsel to attend to matters on behalf of the Federal Government. Low-hanging fruits being targeted in this initiative include $750 million ‘Abacha loot’ as well as £6.9 million of the ‘Ibori loot’. In the long run, the ministry will coordinate the recovery of billions of dollars in foreign jurisdictions, based on current estimations.”
The minister also said the country owed N75 billion in judgment debts. “ It is equally necessary to highlight the fact that the ministry’s liability for judgment debt is N75 billion.
“The ministry has, however, proposed N16 billion to meet a portion of the outstanding sum in 2016, of which the Budget Office proposed N709, 155,140.00, which does not meet one per cent of the debts,” he said.