A New Jersey court in the United States (US) has ruled that assets worth about $8.9 million stolen by government officials in Nigeria around 2014 should be returned to the Nigerian government
The ruling followed the service of a forfeiture notice by Jersey’s Attorney General to the Royal Court in November in which the court concluded that funds deposited in a Jersey bank account were likely misappropriated by officials in the Federal Government in 2014.
Based on the judgment of the court, negotiations for the return of the fund will now take place with the Federal Government of Nigeria.
According to the findings by the court, the transfer of the funds then was disguised as government-sanctioned contracts for arms purchases during the Boko Haram insurgency in Nigeria between 2009 and 2015.
The New Jersey government inferred that it was ikely that a significant portion of the funds earmarked for genuine arms transactions was redirected through international bank accounts associated with shell companies.
His Majesty’s Attorney General, Mark Temple KC, said: “This case again demonstrates the effectiveness of the 2018 Forfeiture Law in recovering the proceeds of corruption and restoring that money to victims of crime.
“I now intend to negotiate an asset return agreement with the Federal Republic of Nigeria”, he assured.
For years now, many Nigerian leaders and business owners had been indicted on cases of money laundering, including a former Head of State, Gen. Sani Abacha and former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke.
For instance, a recent report from ThisDay, one of the leading newspapers in the country, estimated that about $3.65 billion had been recovered from the former military leader over the past years, domiciled in foreign banks
