Okoi Obono-Obla, a former Chairman of the Special Investigation Panel (SPIP) for the Recovery of Public Property, disclosed that the loot recovered under former President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration was returned to the looters.
SPIP was an independent investigative panel set up by former president Buhari to recover Nigeria’s looted assets.
Obono-Obla made this known on Saturday during an interview with Seun Okinbaloye on the Mic On podcast.
Discussing the severity of corruption in Nigeria, the former presidential aide stated that his efforts to prosecute many looters were thwarted by the former Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, and other officials in the same administration.
“Some of the things I recovered were returned to the looters. There was this case of someone from whom I recovered over 80 brand new X-class Mercedes Benz cars (armoured plated) from Jabi, Abuja.
“I wrote to the DG, Customs and the Federal Inland Revenue Services to ask if the person paid customs duties and tax on the vehicles; they said No.
“We get an order of interim forfeiture from the court pending the hearing of the case. So, I sent a memo to Malami to brief him on what we were doing, only for him to tell me that he never mandated me to do things I investigated,” he stated.
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