Publishing names of looters’ll jeopardise investigation -Osinbajo

Olalekan Adetayo, Abuja

Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo on Monday said the Federal Government refrained from publishing names of those it recovered looted funds from in order not to jeopardise investigation.

According to a statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Mr. Laolu Akande, the Vice-President spoke during a meeting he had at the Presidential Villa, Abuja with a delegation of the European Union led by the EU Ambassador in Nigeria, Mr. Michel Arrion.

On the list published by the Federal Government on Saturday, the administration said it had recovered a total of N115.7bn cash, while assets worth over N1.9tn had been frozen in one year.

In a statement by the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the government said the recoveries were made between May 29, 2015 and May 25, 2016.

The government gave the breakdown of the loot as N78,325,354,631.82; $185,119,584.61; £3,508,355.46 and €11, 250.

A conversion of the funds using the official exchange rate of the Central Bank of Nigeria, showed that the amount adds up to N115,792,760,499.

Many individuals and groups had criticised the government for not publishing the names of those the monies were recovered from.

But Osinbajo said, “We have released the list of recovered loot, we know people are asking for the names, but releasing the names may jeopardise ongoing investigations.”

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