London Summit Yields Agreement for Return of Looted Cash to Nigeria

The 2016 anti-corruption summit which held in London on Thursday, May 12, birthed a plan to expedite international efforts on asset recovery.

The Global Forum for Asset Recovery will bring together governments and law enforcement agencies to discuss returning assets to Nigeria, Ukraine, Sri Lanka and Tunisia.

The meeting will be held in the United States (US) next year, co-hosted with the United Kingdom (UK), and supported by the United Nations (UN) and the World Bank, the BBC reported.

British Prime Minister David Cameron hosted the summit hailed as the first of its kind, bringing together governments, business and civil society.

The controversy over Cameron’s description of Nigeria and Afghanistan as “fantastically corrupt”, almost overshadowed the summit but did not prevent the presidents of the two countries from attending.

President Muhammadu Buhari  who was present at the summit said the international community must come up with ways of getting rid of safe havens and ensuring a better return of assets.

“When it comes to tackling corruption the international community has looked the other way for far too long,” he said.

There has been concern recently that the UK, particularly London, had become a place where rich foreigners could buy properties but hide their ownership.

Cameron said that should stop and foreign firms that own property in the UK must declare their assets in a public register.