Comrade Auwal Musa Rafsanjani, the Executive Director of the Civil Society Legislative and Advocacy Centre, CISLAC, has told governments at levels, law enforcement and anti-graft agencies in the black continent to make sure victims of stolen assets receive dividends of the stolen assets when regained.
The executive director made this appeal in Nairobi Kenya, while addressing people at the Global South Forum for Asset Recovery.
Rafsanjani who’s also the head of Transparency International Nigeria, lamented the marginalization of real victims of stolen assets when the assets are finally recovered by governments and their agencies in the continent.
He said made reference to the case between the Nigerian government and Delta state indigenes.
He also made reference to the manner COVID-19 funds were mismanaged in Kenya, reaffirming that if this decadence is not properly curbed, the assets would be re-looted by officials who don’t have the interest of their country in mind.
He said that it is fundamental for residents of the states to gain from the stolen assets.
He also encouraged countries in Africa to develop legal frameworks for the adminstration of recovered funds, stressing that it will motivate non African nations where the assets are transferred to return them back to the black continent.
Rafsanjani also implored anti-graft and law enforcement agencies in the country to obey the recently passed Proceeds of Crime (Recovery and Management) Act, 2022 in seizing, confiscating and managing the regained assets.
He, however, thanked President Buhari and the National Assembly for the commitments to the legislation which he said was long overdue.
He also revealed that recovered assets should not be invested on bogus projects, but rather projects that will be of great importance to the citizens.
The CISLAC boss has also called for much collaboration between state and non state stakeholders saddled with the responsibilities of tracing, repatriating and disposing assets.
The forum had those standing for it, and who were selected from civil society organizations in Equatorial Guinea, Nigeria, Angola, Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa, Ukraine, Uganda, United State, United Kingdom, Germany, France, representatives from the GIZ, African Union secretariat amongst others.
