The Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre,  on Monday advised the Federal Government to comply with the 10 Global Forum for Asset Recovery principles as signed by Nigeria in 2017 in Washington, DC.

The organisation which appreciated the government of Nigeria in their effort to repatriate the stolen Nigerian assets abroad, demand that Nigerian public should be given an unrestricted access to the contractual arrangement by all three parties of this agreement.

A statement by the Executive Director of CISLAC, Auwal Musa Rafsanjani, commended government for the just announced landmark agreement between Nigeria, the Island of Jersey and the United States of America for repatriation of assets looted by late Gen. Sani Abacha.

He said:

“We shall insist that the government complies with the 10 Global Forum for Asset Recovery principles as signed by the government of Nigeria in 2017 in Washington, DC. In particular, the principle four Transparency and Accountability, should be upheld.

“The Nigerian public, through independent and competent civil society, should be given an unrestricted access to the contractual arrangement by all three parties of this agreement. The Nigerian public must have unhindered access to the contractual arrangement of this deal to prevent re-looting and misuse of these assets by well-connected individuals and companies.

“The public has the right to know how these infrastructure projects were selected, which party will oversee the procurement, how the quality of the work will be verified and all other relevant details.

“On behalf of Nigeria, the AGF and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, is expected to sign a tripartite agreement with the Island of Jersey and the United States of America for repatriation of hundreds of millions of looted assets.

“Once the full volume of assets is repatriated to Nigeria and put to use for the benefit of Nigerian citizens, an important milestone in the ongoing effort of the Nigerian government, Nigerian civil society and like-minded international partners, will be achieved.

“We have been consistent in urging the government of Nigeria to establish an accountable and transparent system, which would enable 100 per cent accountable utilization of the repatriated assets to the corruption victims, in most cases, the entire Nigerian population, whose common wealth has been systematically plundered and illegally exported abroad for many decades.

“In principle, CISLAC supports the investment of the recovered assets for infrastructure projects. In the context of technical problems, controversies and heavy transaction costs associated with some previous international recoveries, the recovered assets may be invested into infrastructural projects which may be easier to independently verify, and their completion and usage observed by the Nigerian population without expensive verification mechanisms by third parties.”