FG officially asks UN to recover, return looted assets to Nigeria. by Okechukwu Nnodim

Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Abubakar Malami (SAN) Nigeria has submitted a draft resolution to the United Nations Convention Against Corruption on the Use of Beneficial Ownership Information and Data Disclosure to identify, track, recover and return assets looted or stolen from developing countries. Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, announced this while addressing the 9th Session of Conference of State Parties in progress in Sharm EL Sheikh, Egypt. He explained that the draft resolution was submitted jointly with the support and partnership of five other developing countries, namely, Kenya, Pakistan, Peru and Saudi Arabia. A statement issued in Abuja by the Deputy Director/Head Communications and Advocacy, Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, Obiageli Onuorah, said Malami informed the UN Convention that Nigeria had put in place institutional structures and legislations to protect its resources. The minister conveyed Nigeria’s appeal to the Conference of State Parties of the UN Convention Against Corruption to consider the draft resolution on its merit in view of its strategic importance in recovering looted assets from developing countries. This came as NEITI announced that a National Beneficial Ownership Register would be inaugurated by the agency and the Corporate Affairs Commission in January next year. The NEITI boss explained that under the joint inter-agency collaboration with the CAC, the beneficial ownership register filled with facts, information and data on who owns what in the oil, gas and mining sectors would merge with CAC beneficial ownership portal that covered all registered companies in Nigeria. PUNCH.