A Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN),
Mr Femi Falana, has called on the Federal Government to muster “the political
will and courage” to recover “withheld or stolen wealth of not less than $200
billion belonging to the Nigerian people” instead of taking fresh loans.
In a letter dated April 8, 2016,
which was addressed to the Minister of Finance, the human rights lawyer
threatened to initiate legal proceedings at the Federal High Court in order to
restrain the Federal Government from further plunging the nation into external
indebtedness if it failed to accede to the request.
Part of the letter titled “Request
for the Collection of Outstanding Revenue of $200 Billion Withheld from the
Federation Account or Stolen by Looters”, read: “Following a recent report that
the Federal Government had concluded arrangements take a loan of $2.5 billion
from the World Bank and $1 billion the African Development Bank, we wrote to
the administration requested to jettison the plan.
“In our letter dated February 12,
2016, addressed to your good self, we urged the Federal Government to explore
alternative sources of raising revenue to fund the 2016 budget instead of
increasing the nation's external debt of $64 billion. In particular, we
requested the federal government to embark on the recovery of the revenue of
$42 billion withheld from the Federation Account from 1999-2012 by some
transnational oil companies, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation and
other agencies of the federal government.
“In your reply dated March 17, 2016,
you assured us that the issues raised in our letter were receiving the
attention of the Federal Government. We were, therefore, surprised to learn
that the administration had applied to the Chinese Government for another loan
of $2 billion.
“In urging the Federal Government to
desist from taking the loan of $2 billion from China or any other country, we
are compelled to advise the Federal Government to intensify efforts to recover
the nation's wealth which has been criminally diverted by a handful of local
and foreign looters. The Federal Government may wish to direct the relevant
agencies and the anti-graft bodies to collect the stolen wealth…”
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