Nigeria’s Loots: Recovery Process Complicated, Says British Govt

The British government has declared that it had no intention to keep Nigeria’s stolen money stuck in United Kingdom banks by some corrupt public officials.

It however said the processes of recovering the stuck funds were time consuming and complicated.

British Deputy High Commissioner to Nigeria, Laure Beaufils, disclosed this to reporters on Friday at a forum organised by the management of the privately owned radio station, Royal Fm in Ilorin, Kwara State

Beaufils was in the state in continuation of her familiarisation tour to some parts of Nigeria.

While responding to question from journalists on whether Nigeria still had hope of recovering the loots, she said the funds were still stuck in Britain because all the legal documents required had not been completed.

She stated that, ‘‘There is more than hope, it will happen, the question is question of time and the reason for that is because these are very complicated legal processes, what will have to happen for the money to be returned; all the legal documents must be gathered and to be put in place and we have to make sure that all the money goes back and goes back to the right place.

"This process can be quite time consuming and complicated and sometimes there is also hiccups on the way .I think my message to you is the following.

‘‘First of all we are committed to return that money, there is no desire to keep that money, we can’t access it even if we want to and I expect that you will see some infrastructure flow back in the next few years’.’