Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, SAN, has said that the ministry has recorded an appreciable milestone in the recovery of looted assets in the country.
He said this during the budget defence before the House of Representatives Committee on Justice, yesterday, in Abuja.
He stated that the ministry was mandated to embark on the recovery of looted assets, adding that it had recorded an appreciable milestone.
He added that in this regard, monies recovered were promptly deposited into government treasury, thereby, increasing the revenue profile of the government.
He said that the ministry is currently making efforts to ensure that it is allocated some costs of collection from recovered funds, to finance its recovery operations.
“To date, there are large sums of illicit money stashed abroad, for which we are working at close quarters with ICPC and EFCC as dependable allies to effect recovery,” he said.
The Attorney-General said that the ministry handled public prosecution and civil litigation for the federation and, sometimes, outsourced these services.
He said that the justice sector reforms the ministry is currently undertaking are costly to execute, while calling for support with adequate funding to successfully prosecute them.
He said that the rule of law, as practiced all over the world, is the pivot upon which democracy revolved, stressing that the justice sector as presently constituted, is bedevilled by funding inadequacies, too much for its comfort.
He said lamentably, however, practically all the parastatals under the purview of the Federal Ministry of Justice are in dire need of funding.
Also, Chairman of the House Committee on Justice, Ugonna Ozurigbo, said that the business of government could not be run in a vacuum, and budget approval is very critical to good governance.
He said that the exercise should be given the necessary importance it deserves, while calling on the minister for total disclosure of all material facts.