A former public office holder made a futile effort to hide his loot stashed in the United Arab Emirates before the authorities caught up with the illicit operation.
Ibrahim Magu and a UAE official
An attempt by a yet to be identified former Nigerian governor to transfer $517million out of United Arab Emirates to Dominican Republic has been blocked by the authorities, TheNews Nigeria reports.
A report today said the former governor hit a brickwall because UAE money laundering laws are now strict.
Nigeria had signed a “Judicial Agreement on Extradition, Transfer of Sentenced Persons, Mutual Legal Assistance on Criminal Matters, and Mutual Legal Assistance on Criminal and Commercial Matters, which includes the recovery and repatriation of stolen wealth”, in the course of President Muhammadu Buhari’s visit last January.
In the spirit of the agreement, the Nigerian government has beamed a searchlight on banking vaults and properties where Nigerian officials had kept or invested their loot.
According to The Nation, a Federal Government team, comprising the Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation, Mr. Abubakar Malami, the Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr. Ibrahim Magu and crack detectives from the anti-graft agency, are in Dubai and have started comparing collated intelligence notes on the PEPs with their UAE counterparts.