$750m Abacha's loot: FG engages foreign lawyer

Federal Government has disclosed its intention to engage the service of a foreign lawyer to recover $750 million and £6.9 million pending Abacha and Ibori ‘loot’ on behalf of the government.
This development was disclosed yesterday by Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami.
The Minister, who spoke during an interactive session with the House of Representatives Committee on Justice, chaired by Hon Razak Atunwa (APC, Kwara), said his ministry would “engage in an aggressive policy to seek cooperation with other jurisdictions to ensure repatriation of illicitly-acquired assets.”
He said: “The collaboration will equally involve the engagement of foreign-based counsel to attend to the matters on behalf of the federal government. Low-hanging fruits being targeted in this initiative include $750m of the ‘Abacha Loot’ as well as the sum of GBP6.9m of the ‘Ibori Loot.’”
He explained that the ministry would be in the position to coordinate the recovery of billions of dollars in foreign jurisdictions based on current estimations.
He said in order to ensure expeditious prosecution of terrorism, the ministry would implement the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, 2015 (ACJA) and the Terrorism Prevention Act, 2013.
He said based on the criminal justice law, the ministry has so far recovered 8,000 files from the Nigeria Po¬lice to be prosecuted by the ministry’s in-house lawyers.
He disclosed that the ministry is currently processing about 800 terrorism cases for prosecution, pointing out that the funds to do the work have already been captured in the ministry’s budget proposal.