Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, ( SAN) on Wednesday sought for the understanding of the Senate for a certain percentage of recovered illicit assets from offshore accounts for the Federal Ministry of Justice.
Addressing the Senate Committee on Judiciary and other Legal Matters, Honourable Malami who bemoaned lack of fund for the operation of his Ministry said it was frustrating its pursuit of illicit funds.
He said a dedicated expenditure item to enable the Ministry to carry out payment of legal services and other logistics would mitigate against its present overwhelming financial challenge.
He expressed reservation over the current arrangement where all the recovered assets were being deposited into the federal government treasury through the Federal Ministry of Finance.
The Special Adviser to the President on Social Investments, Mrs Maryam Uwais, has said on Monday that the Federal Government has been channelling the recovered Abacha loot towards programmes and policies designed to address the plight of poor and vulnerable Nigerians.
Delivering an at the training on illicit funds, the Presidential aide said from the August 2018 to the October payment cycle, the total amount disbursed from the Abacha loot was $76,538,530.
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Uwais said the funds were specifically being disbursed to beneficiaries of the National Cash Transfer Programme, a component of the National Social Investment Programme.
But the Minister of Justice specifically asked for a 2.5% commission of every recovered loot.
“I will like to reiterate my earlier request for a dedicated expenditure item to servicing these crucial international obligations in order not to renege our responsibilities as a nation.
Critical functions associated with elections among others clearly as it relates to the execution of election and election associated matters keep cropping up and have serious financial demands that are in no way captured in our budgetary provisions at times.
“This platform provides another excellent opportunity for me to push for approval of 2.5% as requisite commission arising from the recovery of our stolen assets stashed off the shores of Nigeria. A unit of asset recovery in the Federal Ministry of Justice has evidently deposited all recoveries so far into the federal government treasury it true enough we need a sizeable commission to replenish our efforts.
“Billions were recovered and have been recovered and are being pursued without any supporting budgetary provision for the purpose of pursuing the illicit finances being recovered day in day, day out through the Federal Ministry of Justice.”
Malami also expressed disaffection over lack of budgetary provision for an offset of judgement debt both in the 2019 and 2020.
He told the Committee that the last time the federal government made an allocation for such item was in 2017.
He further disclosed that there is an outstanding judgement debt of N150 billion against the federal government locally.
He said indifference to international debt could cast aspersion on the image of the country in the international community.
He said: “Paucity of funds remains a notorious challenge. Regardless, we shall not relent on what we have set out to accomplish largely because the rule of law is undoubtedly the pillar of democracy the world over.
Distinguished committee members, the rule of law is good and noble but greatly capital intensive.
“At the home front, judgement debt kept mounting, a threat to peace, breaches of the peace, outside aggressions and allied reprehensible violence, extremism have all combined to constitute suffocating legal challenges with attendant mounting financial demands in servicing them. It is in public domain that we are today contending with P&ID judgment prompting us to swiftly moved to action to save the country from a $9.6B judgement debt
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“I want to state on record that no budgetary provision existed as it relates to contentious issues relating to the defence of the federal government for the purpose of setting aside this quoted demand and others.
“This is a clear sign and demonstration of the fact that the Federal Ministry of Justice work under very difficult circumstances for the purpose of addressing issues with huge financial demands leading to circumstances where no budgetary provision exists for the purpose of addressing the challenges that kept arising day-in-day-out.”
Earlier in his presentation, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Judiciary, Senator Opeyemi Bamidele, equally expressed disaffection over what he described as the indifference of the Federal Government to the judgement debt.
He assured the Attorney General of the Federation that his Committee would look into the paucity of fund facing the Ministry but noted that it was not peculiar to the Justice Ministry.
He said: “The Committee is worried about the judgement debt profile of the country which keeps soaring by the day as there are no corresponding budgetary allocations to handle such and it is a matter of concern to the Committee.
“It is on record that the last allocation the Ministry got for judgement debt was in the 2017 Appropriation Act where the sum of N10 billion was appropriated.
The Committee is deeply concerned with the failure of our government to service its judgement debt as expected, which has put our image before the international community at stake.
The Committee would strive to ensure that budgetary provisions are made in order to offset the debt burden. I am not talking about $9.6B of P&ID because as far as we are concerned, it isn’t a legitimate and credible debt.
“The Committee is mindful of the mounting challenges the parastatals and agencies have been facing in the last couple of years, especially in the areas of releases of appropriated funds.
The Committee would ensure that all these issues are looked into in subsequent budgets of Ministries Department and Agencies, (MDAs)and be taken up with the leadership of the Senate.”
