British authorities have indicated interest to assist the Nigerian government recover ill-gotten money smuggled into their country.
Former British High Commissioner to Nigeria Dr. Andrew Pocock said in Kaduna that his country would not rule out helping Nigeria to recover any ill-gotten money with evidence. He said: “I am not aware of looted Nigerian funds in British banks and if a great deal of money has disappeared on international networks of one kind or another; I don’t know where it is and I don’t think much of it is in the United Kingdom. That said, we are more than happy to sit with the Nigerian government to help where we can. We need access to facts to as much as what people have information on and then we can sit down and consider what within British law is possible. We don’t have extra territorial jurisdiction but when we find that there are crimes that have been committed in the UK, then British courts can take action.
So, I think we are at the early stage of considering this and we need to work closely with Nigerian authorities.
“If there is evidence that British laws have been broken, British courts will take interest. As far as I am concerned, we are not there yet, but that is not something one can rule out.”
