Many Nigerian fugitives holed up abroad may be forced home soon as the Federal Government seeks to extradite no fewer than 311 of them in a renewed offensive to bring them to justice. This should be pursued with vigour. The suspects are believed to be looters of the public treasury. There should be no safe haven for such people in today’s world. What is required to smoke them out of their hideouts is the right mix of diplomacy and political will.
The Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, who revealed this onslaught in a document containing the mid-term scorecard of the Muhammadu Buhari administration in the legal sector, said that government would leverage the Mutual Legal Assistance agreements it signed with six countries to get the wanted suspects back to Nigeria. The United Kingdom, Switzerland, the United States of America, Italy, South Africa and the United Arab Emirates are the countries having such pacts with Nigeria. The agreement with France will be signed in 2019, going by the outcome of Buhari’s state visit there in September 2015.
The use of the MLA has become a veritable international mechanism for bringing fugitives and trans-national criminals to justice. Its value is not limited to extradition. It encompasses the recovery and forfeiture of assets, transmission of evidence and gathering of information that might assist a country in need, among others. Interestingly, other countries, the AGF said, had also made similar demands on Nigeria, involving a total of 636 persons, out of which 503 of them are already being processed by appropriate government agencies.
Many of the purported importers of petroleum products involved in the subsidy scam of 2011 in which N1.7 million was stolen are on the run, as well as some former public office holders in the last administration, as the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission attempts to close in on them. Also wanted is Abdulrasheed Maina, a former chairman of the Pension Reform Task Team, for the N2.8 billion allegedly found in his bank account. The Special Fraud Unit of the Nigeria Police Force had early this year launched a manhunt for three subsidy fraudsters. They were among the hordes whose companies got permits to import petrol between 2010 and 2011. But they collected N6 billion without importing the product. Each of the three collected N2 billion with forged documents and fled. Tales of this nature are numerous.
The President, who has adequate information about the looting binge of the past, said about $150 billion was siphoned in the 10 years to 2015. Much of this is stashed away in banks in Europe, the US, Island of Jersey and Liechtenstein, among other places. At the 70th General Assembly of the United Nations, Buhari used the opportunity to call on the “global community to urgently redouble efforts towards strengthening the mechanisms for dismantling safe havens for proceeds of corruption and ensuring the return of stolen funds and assets to their countries of origin.” Switzerland appears to be more compliant, as it has so far returned $700 million of Sani Abacha’s loot.
But the desire to seek the extradition of the fugitives is one thing, handling the process effectively for maximum effect is another, and most crucial. Extradition is a legal process; and no country extradites anyone residing in its domain without demanding compelling reasons or evidence for such an action. For instance, the request by Turkey for the US to surrender Fethullah Gulen to it, over his alleged role in the aborted coup of last year, has not materialised, ostensibly due to Washington’s insistence on being availed of concrete evidence. This is where the office of the AGF, EFCC and other similar agencies should ensure that Nigeria gets its act together.
For evidence of the efficacy of the MLA, look no further than in the arrest of James Ibori, a former governor of Delta State, in Dubai in 2010; the UAE authorities extradited him to the UK, where he faced money-laundering charges and was eventually jailed. Similar cooperation underlined the joint EFCC and Interpol arrest of a Nigerian, simply identified as Mike, in Port Harcourt, in August 2016, wanted in the US for leading an online fraud syndicate with networks in Nigeria, South Africa and Malaysia, in connection with a $60 million scam.
In fact, the international system can do much for Nigeria in tracking her criminal suspects if there is synergy among all the government agencies, and a robust coordination from the AGF’s office. Outside the MLA framework, Interpol had in November 2016 expressed the desire to connect Nigerian security agencies to its database. The decision was taken during its 85th General Assembly in Bali, Indonesia, attended by the Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, EFCC, National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, Nigeria Customs Service, and the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control. The authorities should take advantage of this.
Undoubtedly, Nigeria’s bid to get treasury bandits back home to face interrogation and trial is an opportunity for Britain and her allies, who had vowed at last year’s international anti-corruption summit in London, to “restrict their ability to operate in our countries,” to now shift from rhetoric to action, by giving unflinching support to the policy.
