AGF Lists MTN’s N50bn Fine Recovered Loot

A new twist may have been added to the matter of recovered monies allegedly stolen from government purse as the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF), Abubakar Malami, listed the N50billion fined paid by MTN as part of the funds recovered from looters.
According to Malami, who is also Minister of Justice, the Buhari-led administration has through its anti-corruption war, made a total recovery of N57.9b and $US666.676m. Of this amount, N7billion and $10million cash were recovered from private residences of former public officers, the minister said.
An interesting dimension to Malami’s claim was the part of his statement which hinted that part of the recovered funds include, “the N50b fine paid by MTN (a telecommunication company), N7m and $10m (recovered from private residences) and N90m (which was voluntarily returned).”
Malami’s claims on MTN indirectly labels the organization economic saboteurs.
The AGF also said that, “$250m found to be proceeds of illegal oil bunkering has been temporarily forfeited to the government; $136.676m is awaiting actual remittance, while $270 FG’s fund has also been recovered from commercial banks.”
Malami revelations came Thursday while defending the 2017 Appropriation bill of the ministry before the Senate Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters at the National Assembly in Abuja.
A formal statement issued Saturday by Malami’s spokesman, Salihu Isah, detailing what transpired at the interaction with lawmakers did not, however, provide clues or name the individuals from whose homes the monies were recovered.
The Federal Government, in its pursuit of the anti-graft war, recently made one of its biggest cash hauls when EFCC operatives seized the sum of $9.7m and £74,000 from a property belonging to former Group Managing Director of NNPC, Andrew Yakubu.
Yakubu has since sought the intervention of the courts to retrieve the monies seized from him.
Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed was the first to provide insight into recoveries of money allegedly made from looters when he claimed that about $151million and N8billion had been recovered.
He attributed recent gains to the whistle-blowing policy saying, “When we told Nigerians that there was a primitive and mindless looting of the national treasury under the last administration, some people called us liars.
“Well, the whistle-blower policy is barely two months old and Nigerians have started feeling its impact, seeing how a few people squirreled away public funds.”
Lai added, “It is doubtful if any economy in the world will not feel the impact of such mind-boggling looting of the treasury as was experienced in Nigeria.
‘’Yet, whatever has been recovered so far, including the $9.2m by the EFCC, is just a tip of the iceberg.’’