…As Opebi Rotary Club clocks 40
By Adesina Wahab
African nations, including Nigeria, have been advised to take preventive steps against corruption and looting of public funds, as barely one percent of looted funds is recovered after such funds have been laundered abroad.
Also, the countries have been urged to stop the circulation of high currency notes, as such makes it easy to launder proceeds of corruption by criminal elements involved in such acts.
This was the submission of Prof. Ehi Eric Esoimeme while delivering a paper as the Guest Speaker during the celebration of the 40th anniversary of the Opebi Rotary Club in Lagos on Saturday. Esoimeme spoke on “Institutionalizing war against corruption: New approach for asset tracing and recovery.”
Esoimeme, who is an expert in Cross-border Financial Crimes, opined that even when laundered funds are traced, repatriating such back could face a lot of challenges, including legal issues that could take years for any headway to be made.
” From research findings, barely one percent of looted funds are eventually recovered and that may even take years. An example is the Abacha Loot. Many steps and approaches are being taken to address the issue, but the best bet is to prevent corruption and laundering money out of the system. When somebody steals money, what he thinks next is how to spend it without being detected.
“Therefore, the best thing is to put preventive steps such as whistleblower policy, surveillance program, executive order to prevent proceeds of corruption from being taken away among others into use,” he said
The professor at James Hope University Business School noted that some countries sending back looted funds to Nigeria are doing so after using the same money to develop their countries for years.
Speaking on why countries returning looted funds ask that such funds be tied to specific projects, Esoimeme explained that it was because of the fear that such funds could be looted again by another set of people.
He said transparency is required on how such funds are utilized.
The District Governor, RI District 9110, Rotarian Ifeyinwa Rita Ejezie, commended the Opebi Rotary Club for touching the lives of people positively in many aspects.
“Some people have this erroneous belief that Rotarians have so much money and that they don’t know what to do with such money. The fact is that Rotarians are humanists who believe in making life better for other people too. It is in that aspect that I must commend the Rotary Club of Opebi for keeping the flag flying for the past 40 years,” she said.
In his speech, the Club President, Rotarian Femi Olaleye, said putting service above self has been the guiding principle of the club.
He paid glowing tributes to the founding fathers of the Opebi Rotary Club, some of whom were honored at the event.
The Chairman of the occasion, Dr Godwin Ehigiamusoe, said he has a lot of respect for the club because members use their resources and time to address issues that affect the common man.
He specifically lauded Rotarians for their intervention in education, health, economic empowerment of people, and provision of drinkable water.
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