More than 130 choice assets have been bought with looted funds in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE), by some ex-governors, ministers and senators.

These assets are among the over 800 traceable to Nigerians in the UAE, including top security and military officers.

Four areas have been identified through which the nation’s resources are looted.

These are Bribery and corruption, proceeds from commercial tax evasions, illicit activities engaged in by corporations and business ventures and proceeds derived from criminal activities.

The Nigeria’s oil and gas sector his belived to have contributed 92.9 per cent of the total amount in Illicit Financial Flows (IFFs) .

But the chances of Nigeria recovering most of its looted cash are very low because of conditions attached to the release of such funds.

These highlights are part of a report on the “UAE component of the three country (Nigeria, UAE and the UK) comparative study of fixing Illicit Financial Flows,” which was submitted to the Executive Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Mr. Abdulrasheed Bawa last Wednesday in Abuja.

The report, which was commissioned by an anti-corruption group, Human and Environmental Development Agenda,(HEDA), but researched and compiled by Prof. Gbenga Oduntan of Kent University.

Although the report did not reveal the identity of the Politically Exposed Persons (PEPs) with the assets in Dubai, Chairman of HEDA, Olanrewaju Suraj, who spoke with The Nation on the telephone last night, said: “We have left it to, EFCC to unravel them. It is so sad that our funds are being looted and stashed abroad. We are not even talking of assets in the UAE identified with some military officers.”

The report, which was obtained by our correspondent, claimed that Nigerian Politically Exposed Persons (PEPs) and other corrupt public officers taken advantage of UAE’s soft system to launder funds.

The report said: “The sheer recklessness of a system which allows Politically Exposed Persons (PEPs) including 34 Nigerian ex-governors to own 71 properties, seven senators to own 33 properties, and thirteen Federal ministers to buy and own 26 properties is apparent. In the circumstances this is a case of res ipsaloquitor- the facts speak for itself.

“A 2012 report stated that Nigerians had invested up to $6 billion in real estate in Dubai over three years, including whole floors of apartment blocks.61 As bad as things are with respect to dirty money being funnelled into properties in the UK particularly in London, Dubai is qualitatively worse.”

The report attributed the rush to stash funds in the UAE by top Nigerians to the weak financial system and its openness to investors.

The report said: “The finding reached is that the shortcomings in the practices of financial and professional bodies of the UAE are deep, substantive and troubling.

“Corrupt Nigerian elite have managed to evade detection and massively invested into the UAE property market particularly in Dubai. As argued by Barnaby Pace, “We know that the criminal and corrupt set up bolt-holes around the world in which to stash their dirty cash, with Dubai being a favoured spot for many….”

“Dubai is also a preferred destination for trade-based money laundering (TBML –IFF) and political corruption money laundering from Nigeria, precisely because the city is seen as a soft touch for PEPs and their associates.

“There is deliberate orchestration to make Dubai an Eldorado for property investors looking for a place to store wealth considering that construction and real estate sectors in the UAE contributed 20% to GDP as of 2016.”

The report quoted a study as saying “There are not the same checks on the sources of money coming into Dubai as there are in London and elsewhere”

“The lack of qualitative and mandatory beneficial ownership reporting system exacerbates the UAE’s significant shortcomings in relation to the interaction between luxury property market and “Dubai and other Emirates in the UAE operate a more laissez faire philosophy and the UAE generally has shaped itself into a vast bohemian desert investment space.

culled from THE NATION