FG Seizes N45b Looted Funds From Terrorists Sponsors
- By Metropolix ~
- November 17, 2023 --
- 0 Comment
– Attorney General of The Federation, Lateef Fagbemi
By Bunmi Onakan
A whooping N45 billion that was illegally looted from the national treasury has been seized by the Federal Government.
The Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi go, made the disclosure on Thursday, in his opening address at the 40th Technical Commission/Plenary Meeting of the Inter-Governmental Action Group Against Money Laundering in West Africa, GIABA, held at the State House, Abuja.
Fagbemi noted that a number of individuals and entities linked to terrorist activities have been identified and designated, with funds traced to them also confiscated.
The AGF, said the President Bola Tinubu-led government was determined to build on successes that were recorded by past administrations in the country, especially in areas of investigation and prosecution of corruption cases.
He said: “In 2022, we increased the budgets for the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Independent Corrupt Practices Commission and National Drug Law Enforcement Agency by almost 95%.
“We now have over 1,500 officers dedicated to investigating and prosecuting money laundering across these three agencies alone.
“These sustained investment has seen increased numbers of investigations, prosecutions and convictions consistently since 2021 with 5,118 investigations, 1,509 prosecutions and almost 500 convictions secured resulting in over 45 billion naira of illicit proceeds seized.
“We have also made progress in tackling the financing of terrorism and in particular, I am pleased that we have identified and designated a number of individuals and entities linked to terrorist activity and seized funds linked to them.
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