Loot recovery: FG’s panel spreads dragnet to UK, USA

By Harrison Arubu

The Special Presidential Investigation Panel for the Recovery of Public Property (SPIP) has spread its loot recovery dragnet to the United States and United Kingdom.

The panel is targeting assets acquired overseas by both serving and past public officers with looted funds, according to a statement signed by its chairman, Mr Okoi Obono-Obla.

The statement, which catalogued the achievements of the panel since its establishment in 2015, was made available to the News agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja.

To this end, Obono-Obla said the SPIP was partnering with the UK’s Home Secretary to, among others, deny suspected Nigerian looters entry into that country.

He said that the panel had also written to the UK Serious Fraud Office requesting investigation and seizure of assets worth millions of pounds corruptly acquired there by certain public officers from Nigeria.

The SPIP, according to him, is after an unidentified public officer alleged to have stashed stolen millions of British pounds in his London residence.

Obono-Obla further disclosed that the panel had written to the U. S. Treasury Office of Financial Crimes to investigate property illegally acquired by serving public officers.

The property, according to him, is worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, and is located in Florida.

He said that the panel had provided the Federal Inland Revenue
Service (FIRS) with information on property worth millions of dollars and pounds acquired abroad by some Nigerian public office holders.

At home, the SPIP is investigating the alleged failure of Celtel, a multinational telecommunication company, to pay tax to the Federal Government since 2005.