More than 130 choice assets have been bought with looted funds
in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE), by some ex-governors,
ministers and senators.
![image](/2020/10/lawreport.jpg")
These assets are among the over 800 traceable to Nigerians in
the UAE, including top security and military officers.
![image](/2021/04/lawp.jpg")
Four areas have been identified through which the nation’s
resources are looted.
These are Bribery and corruption, proceeds from commercial tax
evasions, illicit activities engaged in by corporations and
business ventures and proceeds derived from criminal
activities.
The Nigeria’s oil and gas sector his belived to have contributed
92.9 per cent of the total amount in Illicit Financial Flows (IFFs)
.
But the chances of Nigeria recovering most of its looted cash
are very low because of conditions attached to the release of such
funds.
These highlights are part of a report on the “UAE component of
the three country (Nigeria, UAE and the UK) comparative study of
fixing Illicit Financial Flows,” which was submitted to the
Executive Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission,
Mr. Abdulrasheed Bawa last Wednesday in Abuja.
The report, which was commissioned by an anti-corruption group,
Human and Environmental Development Agenda,(HEDA), but researched
and compiled by Prof. Gbenga Oduntan of Kent University.
Although the report did not reveal the identity of the
Politically Exposed Persons (PEPs) with the assets in Dubai,
Chairman of HEDA, Olanrewaju Suraj, who spoke with The Nation on
the telephone last night, said: “We have left it to, EFCC to
unravel them. It is so sad that our funds are being looted and
stashed abroad. We are not even talking of assets in the UAE
identified with some military officers.”
The report, which was obtained by our correspondent, claimed
that Nigerian Politically Exposed Persons (PEPs) and other corrupt
public officers taken advantage of UAE’s soft system to launder
funds.
The report said: “The sheer recklessness of a system which
allows Politically Exposed Persons (PEPs) including 34 Nigerian
ex-governors to own 71 properties, seven senators to own 33
properties, and thirteen Federal ministers to buy and own 26
properties is apparent. In the circumstances this is a case of res
ipsaloquitor- the facts speak for itself.
“A 2012 report stated that Nigerians had invested up to $6
billion in real estate in Dubai over three years, including whole
floors of apartment blocks.61 As bad as things are with respect to
dirty money being funnelled into properties in the UK particularly
in London, Dubai is qualitatively worse.”
The report attributed the rush to stash funds in the UAE by top
Nigerians to the weak financial system and its openness to
investors.
The report said: “The finding reached is that the shortcomings
in the practices of financial and professional bodies of the UAE
are deep, substantive and troubling.
“Corrupt Nigerian elite have managed to evade detection and
massively invested into the UAE property market particularly in
Dubai. As argued by Barnaby Pace, “We know that the criminal and
corrupt set up bolt-holes around the world in which to stash their
dirty cash, with Dubai being a favoured spot for many….”
“Dubai is also a preferred destination for trade-based money
laundering (TBML –IFF) and political corruption money laundering
from Nigeria, precisely because the city is seen as a soft touch
for PEPs and their associates.
“There is deliberate orchestration to make Dubai an Eldorado for
property investors looking for a place to store wealth considering
that construction and real estate sectors in the UAE contributed
20% to GDP as of 2016.”
The report quoted a study as saying “There are not the same
checks on the sources of money coming into Dubai as there are in
London and elsewhere”
“The lack of qualitative and mandatory beneficial ownership
reporting system exacerbates the UAE’s significant shortcomings in
relation to the interaction between luxury property market and
“Dubai and other Emirates in the UAE operate a more laissez faire
philosophy and the UAE generally has shaped itself into a vast
bohemian desert investment space.
“Bribery, corruption, illegal resource exploitation, and tax
evasion are the main channels of IFFs especially in relation to
Nigeria- UK relationship in the country’s extractive industries.
Much more damage is done to Nigeria’s financial interest by other
countries as well.
“Indeed Nigeria’s oil and gas sector contributes 92.9 per cent
of the total amount of IFFs the country records yearly through
companies and persons operating in the highly porous yet important
sector.
“In stolen crude oil deals alone Nigeria suffered more than $12
billion in losses to the US between 2011 and 2014. Another $3
billion was lost to China and $839.5 million to Norway in the same
period.
“The damage done from within by bureaucratic mischief is very
significant as well. Unfortunately, there is also under-reporting
of production volumes and oil lifting by the NNPC and Department of
Petroleum Resources (DPR).
“For instance, it has for long been known that the effective
lobbying by oil companies is a large aspect of the stalled progress
of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) for nearly 20 years now
because “the oil majors have been particularly vocal on potentially
losing tax exemptions as a result of this law”.
The report made some recommendations including a generation of
PEPs annually by the Federal Government with their data shared with
some international agencies and development partners.
It added: “A comprehensive list of Nigerian PEPs should be
generated annually. This data should be shared with its development
partners, particularly the UAE, and the UK.
“Extradition remains a highly useful mechanism for governments
and Nigeria must do its best not only to retain the treaties it has
presently but most work to develop even more.
“The task of tracing the foreign investment practices of
Nigerian PEPs in this way will have to take on a historical
perspective. For instance, a former military governor of Ogun State
is identifiable as owning up to six properties with a total
purchase price of over $2 million.
“Article 236 (1) of the Federal Penal Code deals with the
offence of accepting a bribe as a public official. There are
similar provisions targeting bribery of a foreign public official
and this is of great significance in reducing the space for bribe
offences internationally and particularly in the developing
world.
“Private sector bribery is unlawful under Article 236 b (2) of
the Federal Penal Code. Public servants are defined under the Law
as any persons in a federal or local position, whether legislative,
executive, administrative or judicial, whether appointed or
elected. (Article 5, Federal Penal Code).”
It asked the Central Bank of Nigeria(CBN) to evolve better ways
of monitoring financial transactions of PEPs and other
businesspersons.
It said: The CBN would therefore, need to take a more effective
approach with targeted measures not only to negotiate instruments
but also to engage in better monitoring of financial transactions
of PEPs and other businesspersons.
“Looking at what we have discovered so far, the CBN has not
satisfactorily established and performed its supervisory functions
not only over banks particularly in the case of certain types of
customers (e.g., non-resident or offshore customers, PEPs but there
are also shortcomings in oversight in relation to Private
Investment Companies (PIC), MNCs and shell companies; offshore
entities; cash-intensive businesses and import or export
companies).
“ The CBN must do better particularly in its role as an assessor
of the adequacy of financial institution’s systems to manage the
risks associated with senior local/foreign political figures, but
it must do better in instilling an expectation of probity among
corporate management and their ability to implement effective
risk-based due diligence, monitoring and reporting systems.
“The imposition of sanctions against banks including prosecution
of their employees together with the institution is an essential
part of creating a better-disciplined national financial system
that is less susceptible to mischief from within and without. The
journey to a full grant of autonomy to the NFIU is not yet complete
although credit is due to the country’s authority for the
implementation of the Nigeria Financial Intelligence Unit Act 2018,
which established the NFIU as an independent entity.”
Despite its recommendations, the report said the chances of
recovering looted funds are very low.
It said: “The harsh reality is that Nigeria may never even find
out just how many hundreds of billions of looted assets it has
suffered over the decades and certainly since its independence as a
sovereign state. The chances of having the losses restored in
meaningful ways are extremely low.
“Sadly, even recent scandals with ample documentary trail have
led to little or no asset recovery. The practice of some Western
nations including the UK in insisting on exacting and retaining
arbitrary sums as during asset recovery requests from weaker states
is particularly abhorrent. Nigeria and other developing state have
a duty to posterity to resist this practice.
“Similarly, the practice of demanding and attaching
conditionalities outside the confines of international law to the
return of illegally transferred wealth is abominable.
“These practices are not products of law and equity but are
expressions of the asymmetries in international relations, which
permit a certain group of privileged states to add insult to the
injuries of weaker states in the sheer context of things.”
While receiving the report, the EFCC chairman, Bawa, said: “I
want to assure you, that we are going to study the report to add
value to those areas where it is within our mandate; we will look
at it and ensure that justice is done.
“The country has been cheated for quite a long time, people
saddled with the responsibility of governance in this country have
succeeded in doing it selfishly by taking these funds out of the
shores of this country.
“It is one thing for properties to be taken to the UAE and the
UK, it is another thing that we here in Nigeria are ensuring that
you don’t have the opportunity to take them out in the first
instance. That is why we want to be proactive in our approach to
law enforcement and the fight against corruption in this
country.
“All the people that are taking these funds out of the shores of
this country are not doing that alone; there are conspirators,
engineers helping them, professionals are helping them, accountants
and financial institutions are helping them. We are not trying to
look at what happened before but we are determined the future will
be better.
“And then of course part of our mandate to ensure that proceeds
of crime are identified and repatriated for the benefit of all
Nigerians. It is not an easy task, it is something that cut across
jurisdictions.
“The UK and the UAE have their own laws, processes and
procedures, but we have a lot of bilateral and multi-lateral
agreements that we are signatories to; to discuss about issues of
information sharing, investigation as well as repatriation of
ill-gotten assets.
More than 130 choice assets have been bought with looted funds
in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE), by some ex-governors,
ministers and senators.
These assets are among the over 800 traceable to Nigerians in
the UAE, including top security and military officers.
Four areas have been identified through which the nation’s
resources are looted.
These are Bribery and corruption, proceeds from commercial tax
evasions, illicit activities engaged in by corporations and
business ventures and proceeds derived from criminal
activities.
The Nigeria’s oil and gas sector his belived to have contributed
92.9 per cent of the total amount in Illicit Financial Flows (IFFs)
.
But the chances of Nigeria recovering most of its looted cash
are very low because of conditions attached to the release of such
funds.
These highlights are part of a report on the “UAE component of
the three country (Nigeria, UAE and the UK) comparative study of
fixing Illicit Financial Flows,” which was submitted to the
Executive Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission,
Mr. Abdulrasheed Bawa last Wednesday in Abuja.
The report, which was commissioned by an anti-corruption group,
Human and Environmental Development Agenda,(HEDA), but researched
and compiled by Prof. Gbenga Oduntan of Kent University.
Although the report did not reveal the identity of the
Politically Exposed Persons (PEPs) with the assets in Dubai,
Chairman of HEDA, Olanrewaju Suraj, who spoke with The Nation on
the telephone last night, said: “We have left it to, EFCC to
unravel them. It is so sad that our funds are being looted and
stashed abroad. We are not even talking of assets in the UAE
identified with some military officers.”
The report, which was obtained by our correspondent, claimed
that Nigerian Politically Exposed Persons (PEPs) and other corrupt
public officers taken advantage of UAE’s soft system to launder
funds.
The report said: “The sheer recklessness of a system which
allows Politically Exposed Persons (PEPs) including 34 Nigerian
ex-governors to own 71 properties, seven senators to own 33
properties, and thirteen Federal ministers to buy and own 26
properties is apparent. In the circumstances this is a case of res
ipsaloquitor- the facts speak for itself.
“A 2012 report stated that Nigerians had invested up to $6
billion in real estate in Dubai over three years, including whole
floors of apartment blocks.61 As bad as things are with respect to
dirty money being funnelled into properties in the UK particularly
in London, Dubai is qualitatively worse.”
The report attributed the rush to stash funds in the UAE by top
Nigerians to the weak financial system and its openness to
investors.
The report said: “The finding reached is that the shortcomings
in the practices of financial and professional bodies of the UAE
are deep, substantive and troubling.
“Corrupt Nigerian elite have managed to evade detection and
massively invested into the UAE property market particularly in
Dubai. As argued by Barnaby Pace, “We know that the criminal and
corrupt set up bolt-holes around the world in which to stash their
dirty cash, with Dubai being a favoured spot for many….”
“Dubai is also a preferred destination for trade-based money
laundering (TBML –IFF) and political corruption money laundering
from Nigeria, precisely because the city is seen as a soft touch
for PEPs and their associates.
“There is deliberate orchestration to make Dubai an Eldorado for
property investors looking for a place to store wealth considering
that construction and real estate sectors in the UAE contributed
20% to GDP as of 2016.”
The report quoted a study as saying “There are not the same
checks on the sources of money coming into Dubai as there are in
London and elsewhere”
“The lack of qualitative and mandatory beneficial ownership
reporting system exacerbates the UAE’s significant shortcomings in
relation to the interaction between luxury property market and
“Dubai and other Emirates in the UAE operate a more laissez faire
philosophy and the UAE generally has shaped itself into a vast
bohemian desert investment space.
“Bribery, corruption, illegal resource exploitation, and tax
evasion are the main channels of IFFs especially in relation to
Nigeria- UK relationship in the country’s extractive industries.
Much more damage is done to Nigeria’s financial interest by other
countries as well.
“Indeed Nigeria’s oil and gas sector contributes 92.9 per cent
of the total amount of IFFs the country records yearly through
companies and persons operating in the highly porous yet important
sector.
“In stolen crude oil deals alone Nigeria suffered more than $12
billion in losses to the US between 2011 and 2014. Another $3
billion was lost to China and $839.5 million to Norway in the same
period.
“The damage done from within by bureaucratic mischief is very
significant as well. Unfortunately, there is also under-reporting
of production volumes and oil lifting by the NNPC and Department of
Petroleum Resources (DPR).
“For instance, it has for long been known that the effective
lobbying by oil companies is a large aspect of the stalled progress
of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) for nearly 20 years now
because “the oil majors have been particularly vocal on potentially
losing tax exemptions as a result of this law”.
The report made some recommendations including a generation of
PEPs annually by the Federal Government with their data shared with
some international agencies and development partners.
It added: “A comprehensive list of Nigerian PEPs should be
generated annually. This data should be shared with its development
partners, particularly the UAE, and the UK.
“Extradition remains a highly useful mechanism for governments
and Nigeria must do its best not only to retain the treaties it has
presently but most work to develop even more.
“The task of tracing the foreign investment practices of
Nigerian PEPs in this way will have to take on a historical
perspective. For instance, a former military governor of Ogun State
is identifiable as owning up to six properties with a total
purchase price of over $2 million.
“Article 236 (1) of the Federal Penal Code deals with the
offence of accepting a bribe as a public official. There are
similar provisions targeting bribery of a foreign public official
and this is of great significance in reducing the space for bribe
offences internationally and particularly in the developing
world.
“Private sector bribery is unlawful under Article 236 b (2) of
the Federal Penal Code. Public servants are defined under the Law
as any persons in a federal or local position, whether legislative,
executive, administrative or judicial, whether appointed or
elected. (Article 5, Federal Penal Code).”
It asked the Central Bank of Nigeria(CBN) to evolve better ways
of monitoring financial transactions of PEPs and other
businesspersons.
It said: The CBN would therefore, need to take a more effective
approach with targeted measures not only to negotiate instruments
but also to engage in better monitoring of financial transactions
of PEPs and other businesspersons.
“Looking at what we have discovered so far, the CBN has not
satisfactorily established and performed its supervisory functions
not only over banks particularly in the case of certain types of
customers (e.g., non-resident or offshore customers, PEPs but there
are also shortcomings in oversight in relation to Private
Investment Companies (PIC), MNCs and shell companies; offshore
entities; cash-intensive businesses and import or export
companies).
“ The CBN must do better particularly in its role as an assessor
of the adequacy of financial institution’s systems to manage the
risks associated with senior local/foreign political figures, but
it must do better in instilling an expectation of probity among
corporate management and their ability to implement effective
risk-based due diligence, monitoring and reporting systems.
“The imposition of sanctions against banks including prosecution
of their employees together with the institution is an essential
part of creating a better-disciplined national financial system
that is less susceptible to mischief from within and without. The
journey to a full grant of autonomy to the NFIU is not yet complete
although credit is due to the country’s authority for the
implementation of the Nigeria Financial Intelligence Unit Act 2018,
which established the NFIU as an independent entity.”
Despite its recommendations, the report said the chances of
recovering looted funds are very low.
It said: “The harsh reality is that Nigeria may never even find
out just how many hundreds of billions of looted assets it has
suffered over the decades and certainly since its independence as a
sovereign state. The chances of having the losses restored in
meaningful ways are extremely low.
“Sadly, even recent scandals with ample documentary trail have
led to little or no asset recovery. The practice of some Western
nations including the UK in insisting on exacting and retaining
arbitrary sums as during asset recovery requests from weaker states
is particularly abhorrent. Nigeria and other developing state have
a duty to posterity to resist this practice.
“Similarly, the practice of demanding and attaching
conditionalities outside the confines of international law to the
return of illegally transferred wealth is abominable.
“These practices are not products of law and equity but are
expressions of the asymmetries in international relations, which
permit a certain group of privileged states to add insult to the
injuries of weaker states in the sheer context of things.”
While receiving the report, the EFCC chairman, Bawa, said: “I
want to assure you, that we are going to study the report to add
value to those areas where it is within our mandate; we will look
at it and ensure that justice is done.
“The country has been cheated for quite a long time, people
saddled with the responsibility of governance in this country have
succeeded in doing it selfishly by taking these funds out of the
shores of this country.
“It is one thing for properties to be taken to the UAE and the
UK, it is another thing that we here in Nigeria are ensuring that
you don’t have the opportunity to take them out in the first
instance. That is why we want to be proactive in our approach to
law enforcement and the fight against corruption in this
country.
“All the people that are taking these funds out of the shores of
this country are not doing that alone; there are conspirators,
engineers helping them, professionals are helping them, accountants
and financial institutions are helping them. We are not trying to
look at what happened before but we are determined the future will
be better.
“And then of course part of our mandate to ensure that proceeds
of crime are identified and repatriated for the benefit of all
Nigerians. It is not an easy task, it is something that cut across
jurisdictions.
“The UK and the UAE have their own laws, processes and
procedures, but we have a lot of bilateral and multi-lateral
agreements that we are signatories to; to discuss about issues of
information sharing, investigation as well as repatriation of
ill-gotten assets.