By Alltimepost.com
BENIN CITY, NIGERIA – Frontline anti-corruption Watchdog in Nigeria, the Africa Network for Environment and Economic Justice (ANEEJ) has applauded the ambitious resolve of the International Community’s commitments to expose, punish and drive corruption out of the global community.
Reacting to the communiqué issued by world leaders at the end of the anti-corruption Summit hosted by the British Prime Minister, Mr. David Cameron in London during the week ANEEJ Executive Director, Rev. David Ugolor said greater emphasis must be placed on the implementation of all commitments reached by the world leaders to deal with the cancer of corruption.
Rev. David Ugolor said his organization was particularly happy that the Open Government Partnership (OGP) participating governments that attended the summit committed to working with civil society to embed the Summit commitments into National Action Plans.
“We are also pleased that President Muhammadu Buhari announced Nigeria’s signing onto the OGP at the Summit alongside several other national plans to fight corruption and fast-track repatriation of the country’s stolen assets,” Ugolor remarked.
In the same vein, he continued “we urge the British Government to take steps to extradite the immediate Past Nigerian Petroleum Minister, Mrs. Deziani Alison-Madueke and other corrupt Nigerians currently hiding their loot and themselves in the UK to face corruption charges back home in Nigeria consistent with provisions of the communiqué which sent a clear signal to the corrupt that they will face consequences internationally and will be prevented from international travel and stopped from enjoying their ill-gotten gains.”
He asserted that civil society’s request was also in keeping with the commitment of governments at the summit to punish the corrupt and support those who have suffered from corruption.
“We believe that effectively applying the extradition and MLA provisions of UNCAC and other applicable international conventions agreed to at the summit is key to the Nigerian government’s effort at recovering over $300billion allegedly stolen by Politically Exposed Persons (PEPs) in the past few years as these resources are needed by Nigerians to fight the Boko Haram insurgency and substantially meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030.’’
“We are equally enthused that the Summit considered recent event as it relates to the Panama Paper leaks as governments committed ‘to take firm collective action on increasing beneficial ownership transparency–and will fully implement the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) Recommendations on Transparency and Beneficial Ownership of Legal Persons and Arrangements.’”
He also expressed pleasure with President Muhammadu Buhari’s commitment to establishing beneficial ownership public register which is being piloted by the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI).
“We believe that this is an important step towards closing the offshore centers and secrecies destinations of laundered funds and looted assets.” Ugolor said.
He urged governments to put mechanisms in place to ensure law enforcement and other competent authorities, including tax authorities as well as Civil Society have full and effective access to accurate and up to date information.
