There can be no safe haven for loot abroad, Osinbajo tells U.S
There can be no safe haven for loot abroad,
Osinbajo tells U.S. delegation
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo said Monday that
the present administration had contacted the United States government to
increase its assistance in ensuring that corrupt officials did not find a safe
haven abroad for their loot.
According
to a statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Laolu
Akande, Osinbajo disclosed this during the visit of a US Congressional
delegation to the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
“We
have reached out to the US government with respect with helping with
repatriation of proceeds of crime and proceeds of corruption”, he was quoted as
saying.
Osinbajo
was reported to have also told the delegation that the present administration
regarded corruption as an existential threat that must be dealt with at its
root.
He
stated that, “We have worked quite closely with the US government on
repatriation of funds, we have seen some results.
“We
think that this is very important because what tends to happen with corrupt
public officials is that if they are able to find a safe haven for the proceeds
of their criminality, not only are they encouraged as individuals but there is
the general feeling that if I am able to get the proceeds out of the country, I
might just get away with it.
“This
is one of the reasons why we have taken several actions to ensure that we are
able to deal with it because some of the major dislocations in the economy are
on account of the problems that we have seen with corruption.
“The
Buhari presidency’s strategy which is one of the most effective ways of
fighting corruption is ensuring that these proceeds are unsafe and for people
to know that they would be found out and they would be punished for it and we
would seize whatever profit they had gain.’’
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