Govt has Seized Looted N45bn, Identified Terrorist Financiers – AGF

The Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), said on Thursday the Federal Government has seized over N45 billion looted from the treasury by corrupt officials in the country.

Fagbemi, who stated this in his address at the 40th Technical Commission/Plenary Meeting of the Inter-Governmental Action Group Against Money Laundering in West Africa (GIABA) in Abuja, said the government has identified a number of terrorist financiers and their funds confiscated.

He added that the current administration was determined to build on successes recorded by past governments, especially in the investigation and prosecution of corruption cases.

The AGF said: “In 2022, we increased the budgets for the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Independent Corrupt Practices Commission and National Drug Law Enforcement Agency by almost 95 percent

“We now have over 1,500 officers dedicated to investigating and prosecuting money laundering across these three agencies alone.

“These sustained investments have seen increased numbers of investigations, prosecutions, and convictions consistently since 2021 with 5,118 investigations, 1,509 prosecutions, and almost 500 convictions secured resulting in over N45 billion of illicit proceeds seized.

“We have also made progress in tackling the financing of terrorism and in particular, I am pleased that we have identified and designated a number of individuals and entities linked to terrorist activity and seized funds linked to them.

“The Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU), has become a global model and achieved the outcomes envisaged by the passage of its enabling legislation in 2018 which established it as an independent, autonomous unit.”