Humam rights lawyer, Femi Falana (SAN), yesterday cautioned western countries to stop labeling Africa as a corrupt continent, saying they were more corrupt.His verdict was contained in a paper titled: Human Rights IssuesSurrounding The Non-Return Of Assets To Countries Of Origin, which he delivered at the 8th Annual Conference of Anti-corruption Agencies in Commonwealth Africa in Abuja.
His words: “London is the centre of global corruption. The banks of western countries receive and keep stolen wealth from Africa and other developing countries.“Western governments conveniently hid behind the free movement of capital ideology to fold their arms and turn the other way
for many years after the end of the Cold War.
“Former British Prime Minister, David Cameron, whose family name was listed in the Panama papers had the temerity to label Nigeria as a fantastically corrupt country.“The Abacha loot of about $5 billion has been traced to banks in Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States and other western countries.
“Apart from Switzerland, which has reluctantly returned part of the loot, no other recipient country has recovered and repatriated a
dime to Nigeria.”
Meanwhile, the Africa Network for Environment and Economic Justice, ANEEJ, has commended the appointment of Nigeria as chairman of Heads of Anti-Corruption Agencies in the Commonwealth, saying it is a vote of confidence by the Commonwealth and the rest of the world on the Nigerian government, Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and stakeholders.
Executive Director of ANEEJ, Rev. David Ugolor, said this in a statement following the African Union (AU)’s meeting in January in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in which President Muhammadu Buhari was awarded the AU anti-corruption Champion.
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