FG will release names of 'looters', AGF says

dimeji akinloye

July 6, 2017 5:16 AM

But the Attorney-General of the Federation noted that the information about the suspected looters will be made public only after govt has "fulfilled judicial principles."

The Federal Government has said the list of suspected treasury looters would be made public.

A Federal High Court in Lagos had ordered the Muhammadu Buhari administration to release information about public officials who allegedly looted the treasury.

The government had claimed that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) recovered huge sums of 'stolen' money from some public officials but had refused to release names of the suspected looters and other information about them.

However, following the court order, the government has agreed to publish the information but only after it has "fulfilled judicial principles."

According to the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF), Abubakar Malami, due process must be followed.

The AGF spoke with State House correspondents on Wednesday, July 5, 2017.

"The issue that is fundamentally worthy of consideration is the fact that the government will definitely be alive to its responsibility as far as those disclosures are concerned," he said.

"You have to take into consideration that there are a lot of factors that are to be considered as far as making those disclosures are concerned.

"So the government will at the appropriate time make necessary disclosures perhaps intermittently against the background of the prevailing conditions relating to the tendency of certain suits and associated things."

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Malami added that matters that are pending in court have been restricting government from making some disclosures.

He said, "There are matters of reconciliation, compilations and associated things.

"On need and compliance basis, the federal government has been making necessary statements public, and then courts in their own rights, in the course of adjudication of cases, keep making judgements and statements as they relate to the parties."

Justice Hadiza Shagari compelled the Federal Government to disclose the identity of the suspected looters following a freedom of information suit filed by the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP).

dimeji akinloye