Falana made the comment during an event organized by the US embassy to mark the international anti-corruption day.
Human rights lawyer, Femi Falana has urged the federal government to fight people who looted the country’s funds instead of begging them to return the money.
Falana made the comment during an event organized by the US embassy to mark the international anti-corruption day.
“People have stolen our money, why are you begging them to return it? We need to fight them and collect the money; we do not need loans that will mortgage the future of our country,” he said according to The Cable.
“The government is asking for a loan of $29.6 billion and we have more than that to recover. For instance, $458 million has been forfeited in the US; Nigeria has filed an application before the high court in Jersey where the money was traced to.
“But the US government has filed an objection to the release of the money to the government of Nigeria, claiming the money should be paid to the US government to be managed for Nigeria.
“We also have some money to collect from the Swiss government; the Swiss government is illegally saying that they are not going to release this money unless the World Bank is ready to supervise the management of the fund.
“Unfortunately, the government (Nigeria) is not challenging such violations of our sovereign rights as a nation. Unless the federal government is prepared to adopt an aggressive policy against western governments and their very corrupt financial institutions, we are not going to come out of this mess,” he added.
Falana also warned that the loans being requested by the government would tamper with Nigeria’s future if granted.
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