A fresh inflow of foreign exchange totaling £6.9m ($8.9m) or N8.2 billion (when converted to naira), will soon hit the coffers of the Nigerian government.
This is because a court in the United Kingdom has ruled that the money, suspected to be stolen funds earmarked for arms purchase, be returned to Nigeria. BBC reported that the ruling comes after Jersey’s Attorney General served a forfeiture notice to the Royal Court in Jersey in November 2023.
The court ruled that the funds, deposited in a Jersey bank account, was likely stolen by Nigerian government officials in 2014 and the return of the assets will now be negotiated with the Federal Government. It is reported that the transfer of money was disguised as government-sanctioned contracts for arms purchases during invasions by Boko Haram in Nigeria between 2009 and 2015. The Government of Jersey said it was likely that most of the funds meant for legitimate arms deals were diverted through foreign bank accounts to and from shell companies.
The office of Attorney General, Mark Temple’s office, said it is believed the money went to family members of the former ruling party and was shared amongst its members during the 2015 general elections in Nigeria and that the property in this case was to be used for the purposes of such an “illicit transaction”. Temple said the government of Jersey had worked in close partnership with Nigeria to recover the property on behalf of the people of Nigeria.
He said: “This case again demonstrates the effectiveness of the 2018 Forfeiture Law in recovering the proceeds of corruption and restoring that money to victims of crime. I now intend to negotiate an asset return agreement with the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”
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