$150bn Stolen Money: UPP Urges Buhari to Beam Searchlight Locally

National Chairman of UPP, Chief Chekwas Okorie

Onyebuchi Ezigbo in Abuja

The United Progressives Party (UPP) has asked President Muhammadu Buhari to ensure that his government tracks all stolen funds within Nigeria and recover same for the benefit of Nigerians.

The party in a statement issued by its National Chairman, Chief Chekwas Okorie, said it was in support of President Buhari’s request for the United States government assistance to help in critical areas of the country’s need.

Speaking on the push by the president to tackle corruption and recover all the money illegally stashed away from the country, Okorie said the federal government should also look inwards to unravel those who have used stolen public funds to acquire property and lodged billions in their accounts.

“We are not surprised that President Buhari, on the basis of information available to him, has estimated that Nigeria’s public funds in private hands laundered abroad directly or through surrogates and phoney companies in the past decades amount to about $150 billion.

“We believe that an equivalent of that amount of money in cash and other assets can also be tracked within Nigeria and recovered for the benefit of the Nigerian people. There should be no sacred cows in the pursuit of recovering our stolen wealth.

“We wish to recall that when the leadership of our great party, UPP, paid a courtesy visit to the then President-elect, Buhari, we stated inter alia, ‘…that your government should among other things spare no effort to recover all recoverable of our common patrimony in private hands, whether in Nigeria or abroad which has been illegally or illegitimately acquired’.

“We further stated in that same address to him  that we are convinced that recovering as little as 25 percent of our commonwealth in private hands will go a long way in assisting you to fulfil most of your campaign promises to Nigerians.”

UPP added that: “As we look forward to the safe return of the president and his delegation to Nigeria to continue the arduous task of rebuilding the country, we urge him to speedily constitute or reconstitute as well as strengthen or fortify the relevant agencies of government that will embark without delay the process of recovering all illegal acquisitions by Nigerians and their agents who can be traced whether in cash, stocks, real estate or any form conceivable.

“Let all Nigerians cooperate with the government of Buhari in this patriotic effort in repatriating this stolen money to Nigeria.”