The Nigerian government says it will resume the prosecution of some alleged suspected terrorists and their financiers in the next two weeks after a painstaking investigation.
Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice (AGF), Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), who disclosed this at the opening of the 40th technical commission and plenary meeting of the inter-governmental action group against money laundering in West Africa in Abuja on Thursday, said the trial of the alleged suspects was very much alive as against insinuations from certain quarters that the cases had been swept under the carpet. He added that the government was finalising efforts to ensure a smooth and successful trial.
“Efforts are on to resume the trial of those categories of people. And I think, in the next two weeks, it will be a different story. We are conscious of that issue,” the AGF said.
“Facilities are being put in place. Apart from the regular physical mode of trial, we are working on ways to ensure that virtual trials can also be conducted.”
According to Fagbemi, the adoption of virtual trials is aimed at preventing delay, insisting that the government was not shying away from its responsibility of providing funds for this purpose.
“The adoption of virtual trial is aimed at preventing delay. The government is not shying away from its responsibility of providing funds for this purpose”.
The AGF also emphasized the importance of regional and international cooperation in order to effectively combat money laundering, terrorist financing, and the financing of proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.
“Our ability to tackle the most complex criminal activity, money laundering, and violent terrorist attacks is predicated on the capabilities of our supervisory, law enforcement, and prosecutorial authorities, and the outcomes that we are achieving point to the need for greater investment in human and technical resources and improved training and capacity development.”
The AGF also stated that the Nigerian government was able to secure about 500 convictions which resulted in the recovery of over N45 billion in the last two years.
“In 2022, we increased the budgets for the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Independent Corrupt Practices Commission, and National Drug Law Enforcement Agency by almost 95%. We now have over 1,500 officers dedicated to investigating and prosecuting money laundering across these three agencies alone.
“These sustained investment has seen increased numbers of investigations, prosecutions, and convictions consistently since 2021 with 5,118 investigations, 1,509 prosecutions, and almost 500 convictions secured resulting in over N45 billion of illicit proceeds seized.
“We have also made progress in tackling the financing of terrorism and in particular, I am pleased that we have identified and designated a number of individuals and entities linked to terrorist activity and seized funds linked to them”, he stated.