Monitoring Forfeitures Of Convicted Ex-Public Officials

BY PUNCH EDITORIAL BOARD 

AS was the case with Bayelsa State ex-Governor, Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, and Plateau State ex-Governor, Joshua Dariye, the immediate past Governor of Delta State, James Ibori, is to forfeit corruptly-acquired assets that were recently confiscated by the authorities in the United Kingdom. As part of a plea bargain in February, he admitted to fraud totalling over $79 million, after his arraignment at London’s Southwark Crown Court for offences relating to money laundering and corruption. The planned repatriation of the loot has caused much excitement, but a challenge remains for the people of Delta State: how to ensure that the forfeited assets are properly managed and accounted for when they are eventually transferred to the state government’s custody.

The channels through which public assets of such value transformed into Ibori’s private wealth and were transferred to the UK should be blocked forthwith. Never again should any public official be able to so brazenly loot public assets. The Crown Court prosecutor, Sasha Wass, established that the ex-governor and a network of collaborators used multiple bank accounts to launder funds and perpetrate related criminal acts. Ibori succeeded in his looting because, in Delta State, as everywhere else in Nigeria’s public service — at the federal, state and local council levels — accounting standards are poor and oversight by the parliament is almost non-existent. The loopholes exploited by Ibori and like-minded looters are probably still intact; they involve the financial and judicial systems. There is a danger that these loopholes could swallow up part, if not everything, of what is currently being celebrated as recovered loot. Remember that, like his counterparts in Bayelsa and Plateau states, Ibori retains powerful connections within and outside Delta State that could facilitate his re-possession of what has been legally forfeited.

Such concerns are valid. There is always a disturbing blackout on the forfeited assets of corrupt public officials. As at March 2010, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission claimed it had recovered over $6.5 billion and secured over 400 convictions since its inception in 2004. On September 26, 2007 the Press and Public Affairs Office of the British High Commission in Nigeria declared that, “To date, the Metropolitan Police has seized £34.6 million of Nigerian assets relating to two former state governors, Joshua Dariye and Diepreye Alamieyeseigha.”

Much of that has since been repatriated by the UK authorities to the state governments. On July 9, 2009 the then EFCC Chairperson, Farida Waziri, said the sums of N3.12 billion; $441,000; 7,000euros, and £2,000.00 were returned to Bayelsa State as proceeds from assets in Nigeria seized and sold by the Commission.

In addition were “two prime forfeited properties, Chelsea Hotel located in the Central Area of Abuja, valued at over N2.8 billion in 2007, and No.2, Marscibit Street, off Aminu Kano Crescent, Wuse II, Abuja, valued at N210 million.” The then state Governor, Timipre Sylva, assured Nigerians on that occasion that, “I will use the money to build a massive plaza, which I will call Transparency Plaza, in the midst of the Yenagoa Business District.” Neither in Plateau, nor in Bayelsa is there evidence that citizens, civil society groups, the states’ lawmakers or the press are monitoring these returned assets.

But in determining how best to guarantee safe custody and proper utilisation of the Ibori loot, the people of Delta State have to be guided, not only by their experience of what happened in Bayelsa and Plateau states, but also by the EFCC’s inability to properly account for forfeitures from an erstwhile Inspector-General of Police, Tafa Balogun. In a disclaimer on February 23, 2011, the commission stated, in part: “Till date, we don’t know the exact number of properties seized from the former IGP because there is no record for forfeited assets. We don’t know how many properties were sold, who sold what and how much was recovered from the sale.”

Neither the state governments nor EFCC has proved dependable thus far. But one public agency or the other has to manage the returned loot.

Strict policies and procedures for the management and disposal of forfeited businesses, property and financial assets of corrupt officials must therefore be put in place in every state. The people of Delta must demand from the state government, official documentation and publication of all returned forfeitures traceable to the recovered Ibori loot. In addition, the government has to produce a plan itemising specific projects and programmes to which the money will be deployed — and their costs as well as executors and timelines.

The state House of Assembly has to stand at all times as worthy representatives of the people, regularly interrogating the executive on performance and related matters. That is the very least demanded of the state authorities by international best practices.