Nigeria having difficulty retrieving looted funds abroad — Osinbajo

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo says tracing, freezing and retrieving stolen assets has proved to be exceptionally difficult for most African countries.

According to him, Nigeria has seen how difficult it is "to get back stolen assets from the international financial system such as banks that ought not to have received those funds in the first place if even the most routine questions were asked."

The vice president was speaking yesterday in Paris, France, at the anti-corruption and integrity forum of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

Osinbajo disclosed that this week, Nigeria signed a bilateral mutual legal assistance treaty on collaboration of financial crimes and corruption, in addition to the several ones earlier ratified with numerous countries within and outside the West Africa.