BY MARY KUYE
The United States of America, Britain and other European countries have been fingered as the greatest beneficiaries of the massive looting by African leaders in government.
Senior Advocate of Nigeria and foremost human rights activist, Mr Femi Falana stated this on Wednesday in Kaduna when he took a swipe at the United State representative who gave conditions for the released of the loot of former Head of State, Sani Abacha which he starched into foreign banks.
The U.S had been quoted as saying that if the $308m Abacha refund loot is stolen it would be paid back.
Delivering the keynote address at the 18th Anti-Corruption Situation Room, ACSR, organized by the HEDA Resource Centre in partnership with the McArthur Foundation, Falana stated some hard words for the United States of America and some countries in Europe for the role in warehousing illicit funds laundered by corrupt Nigerians.
While noting that over $4 billion have so far been recovered from the late military Head of State, General Sani Abacha, Falana took exception to what he called the insult from the US, when it recently signed an agreement to repatriate $308 million to Nigeria.
He said: “The United States and other countries in Europe are the greatest beneficiaries of corruption in Africa.
‘Recently, the US agreed to repatriate another batch of Abacha loot to the country and while signing the agreement, a young man rose up to warn our government that if the money is stolen, it would be paid back.
”I was shocked that the Attorney General of the Federation did not say anything.”
Speaking further on corruption, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, UNODC said that 32 per cent Nigerians who secured jobs in the nation’s public service in 2019 paid one form of bribe or the other.
Country Representatives of UNODC, Oliver Stolpe who chaired the ACSR stated this in his welcome address to participants on Wednesday.
Mr Stolpe noted that unlike the statistics released recently by the Transparency International, TI; findings by UNODC’s figures were not based on perception but on empirical findings backed by the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics, NBS.
The report also noted that 33 per cent of Nigerians who had contact with the Police IN 2019 paid a bribe to secure freedom.
READ ALSO: US to Nigeria: ‘If You Steal Abacha’s $308m Loot, We’ll Collect It Back’
According to the UNODC boss, Nigeria must pay attention to the public service recruitment process adding that the corruption therein was worrisome.
“Given that the prevalence of bribery in relation to the Police has decreased significantly since 2016, this signals that other types of a public official are now extorting bribes in exchange for “looking the other way” more often than before.
”The prevalence of bribery in relation to several types of public officials has decreased significantly since 2016.
”The greatest change is in relation to Police officers, meaning that the share of people who paid a bribe to a Police officer prior to the 2019 survey decreased from 46 to 33 per cent,” said the UNODC boss.
The event was attended by top officials of government agencies and non-governmental organizations.
