The Federal Executive Council (FEC) has approved various agreements involving the repatriation of fugitives from justice and prisoners’ swap between Nigeria and the Kingdom of Spain.
Attorney General of Federation and Minister of Justice Lateef Fagbemi, stated this while briefing correspondents at the end of the council meeting presided over by President Bola Tinubu on Monday at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.
He said the measure, which will also be signed with other countries, will ensure that nobody can escape justice.
Fagbemi said: “As you all know, there are three stages. The first one is the investigation aspect. The second one is the prosecution of the sentencing and ensuring that you serve the sentence as a deterrence.
“Before now there have been what you called trans-border inhibitions, where somebody who is wanted in Nigeria for example, goes beyond the borders of Nigeria to get him arrested.
“Suppose you need any document that is not within but you know where he can be reached how do we get this document?
“Somebody is trying to escape justice. How do you get him back and after sentencing?
“Some countries have policies that say okay, ‘let’s the convict come back home.’
“So, all these three stages are being addressed. We will do it country by country. But for today, the ones dealt with was the one concerning the kingdom of Spain, Nigeria and the Kingdom of Spain.
“So, we three took memos in quick succession, one dealing with the exchange of information including investigation.
“We have an agreement which was signed way back in June 2022. So, after the agreement, what the law requires is that you should come back and have it ratified. And it was presented to Council today of course. “And then under the leadership of our great leader and the president, sitting chair, it was passed.
“The second one had to do with the exchange of assistance to bring back fugitives, people trying to escape from justice.
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“So, is either you bring them to justice or take justice to them. So, this second aspect of the mutual assistance has been ratified.
“The third in the series has to do with after conviction what do we do? Some will say okay, if you have these convictions, can you bring the person back home to serve his sentence here? The same thing goes any coming from, especially to the country we have an agreement with, in this case, Spain.
“So. we have an agreement that either way, we can exchange persons sentenced to either serve their sentence here or there.
“So, this has significantly shown that there is no hiding place for criminals. If they go outside the shores of the country, they can rest assured that the arms of the law is long enough to reach them.
So, these are the three memos from the Ministry of Justice which the FEC considered approved.”
