The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama, on Monday, assured Nigerians that negotiations are ongoing with a number of countries on modalities for the repatriation of some of the funds that were stolen and stashed abroad.
The minister stated that the Federal Government is in touch with Switzerland, which he said had repatriated $700m, noting that another $300m that was recovered would soon be repatriated to Nigeria.
Speaking in an interview with journalists in Abuja, Onyeama stated that the FG was in discussion with the United Kingdom, the United States, among other foreign governments on how all looted funds could be recovered.
He said, “We are in touch with Switzerland; they have recently recovered quite a significant amount of money and I met last week with Swiss representatives to work out the modality for the repatriation of this fund.
“The Swiss government has already repatriated over $700m from Abacha loot and that agreement has been reached on how the money would be applied.
“They have also now recovered in the same context another $300m of which there is ongoing discussion to have that repatriated as well. There are discussions with other countries; United Kingdom for instance, as you all know where there are ongoing discussions there.”
The minister explained that the goodwill generated by President Muhammadu Buhari’s visits to the US and other countries had helped enormously in getting various countries to cooperate with Nigeria on the fund repatriation issue.
