We plan to recover looted funds from UAE –FG

The Federal Government said it hoped to recover looted funds that were stashed in the United Arab Emirates.

The government stated that it had no figure of looted funds kept in the UAE, but hinted that the amount could be huge.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama, who gave the indication while responding to questions during a news conference on Thursday in Abuja, added that efforts to recover looted funds were ongoing.

“Yes, there are Mutual Legal Assistance Agreements signed by UAE and other countries to facilitate dealing with stolen funds. UAE is one of the countries we are clearly looking at in terms  of repatriating Nigeria’s resources, but how much we are looking at, we don’t have any figure in respect of that. But hopefully, it would be significant because we really need it. Oil prices being where they are, we really need to get as much of our stolen funds back as possible,” Onyeama said.

He stated that the Federal Government  had been engaging many countries to repatriate stolen funds, adding that all the countries were willing to assist Nigeria in this direction.

The minister justified the  frequent foreign trips by President Muhammadu Buhari, saying he could achieve quick wins and a lot of support and cooperation from his fellow presidents when he met with them one on one.

He explained that the President had made strategic visits to South Africa, Kenya, Egypt and Equatorial Guinea and Iran, among others, to push his foreign policy and shore up support for Nigeria and Africa.

According to him, all the multilateral meetings attended by Buhari were aimed at pushing African and Nigerian interests to the world, stressing that the visits to Saudi Arabia and Qatar, among others were meant to stabilise the falling oil prices.

The minister said Buhari had articulated the vision of his administration, which he said, was focused on  security, economy, governance and tackling corruption. He noted that “Buhari represents the brand Nigeria has and his personality has attracted goodwill to the country.”

Onyeama denied reports that Nigeria had joined the Islamic alliance against terrorism, adding that his ministry did not sign any agreement with the Islamic countries.

He said, “Nigeria is facing an existential threat and there is a need to join a global coalition to combat terrorism. So, we support the objectives of the Islamic alliance against terrorism, but this ministry has not signed any agreement to be part of them.”

Meanwhile, the Chinese Ambassador to Nigeria, Gu Xiaojie, has announced that President Buhari would be travelling to China on his first state visit in April 2016, noting that the visit was to expand the cooperation between Nigeria and China.

He stated that the two countries would work closely to implement the outcomes of the Sino-Africa Summit which held in South Africa in December, 2015.

Xiaojie observed that Nigeria was in dire need of infrastructure, adding that Chinese firms, with the backing of EXIM Bank and the Chinese government, had embarked on various developmental projects in Nigeria, including airport construction to bridge the infrastructure gap.

(Punch)