Nigeria: Canada Ready to Aid Nigeria Repatriate Stolen Funds – Calderwood

The outgoing Canadian High Commissioner to Nigeria, ‎Perry John Calderwood,‎ has assured the Nigerian government that Canada is ready to support the country’s quest to repatriate any stolen fund that may be traced to any bank in Canada.

Calderwood gave the assurance in an interview he granted in Lagos, saying the government of Canada had often assured its counterpart in Nigeria that it was willing to provide assistance in retrieving stolen assets put in any bank in Canadia

He said, “With regards to Canada specifically, we have told the Nigerian government that if there are funds that have been traced to Canada, there are mechanisms in place for our government to respond to this kind of request. It’s through our federal police and through our justice department and the contacts are there already.

“I read that sometimes, people feel frustrated that it takes time to retrieve funds that may have been stolen and stashed in Canada in form of real estate or something but remember that in any country that respects rule of law, certain procedures must be followed. A government simply just doesn’t have power to seize something and return it somewhere. You have to go through the legal processes,” Calderwood said.

The High Commissioner said no matter how tough it could be ‎to retrieve stolen fund, a determined government must not give up.

“We must be determined as government committed to tackling corruption, make resources available to effectively combat that and not allow the criminals to find their way around our rules,” he said.

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Credit: All Africa