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Yesterday,  The Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar pleaded with the United Nations Secretary General, Ban Ki Moon, to help Nigeria recover its stolen money stashed in foreign countries. The monarch said the millions of dollars stolen from Nigeria are needed for the upward movement of the country. He said this at a dialogue on democracy, human rights, development, climate change and countering violent extremism, hosted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Abuja and chaired by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo yesterday.

Abubakar gave assurance that the looted fund would be used by the Federal Government for the benefit of the people, if recovered. He said, “My final appeal, Mr. Secretary-General, you are here in our country because you believe in Nigeria, because you believe in the present government, I would like to request you, how can you use your office to bring back all the money stolen from this country, and stashed in foreign banks?

“I believe in Mr. President when he said corruption is the worst human rights abuse in the world, I sincerely believe in what he said because corruption is the foundation of all bad governance, and all religious crimes being committed across the world.

“If we have corruption checked, we can’t eradicate corruption, but we can reduce it to the barest minimum, and if the money stolen and the countries know that these money did not belong to these people because they have not worked for such amount of money in millions of dollars, please see how you can help to bring this money back, it would be used for the benefit of the people. if you bring this money back, it will be used for the benefit of the people, please help us to bring this money back.”

The Sultan’s appeal got many present at the event to clap in support of his appeal. Even the Catholic Archbishop of Abuja, Cardinal John Onayeikan, said, “It is not only our money they should bring back, but also our girls.” The Sultan further challenged the UN on the crisis in the Middle-East, saying the two main religions, Islam and Christianity have no problems, but extremism is the causal agent of the age long rift.

Meanwhile, the UN has announced that it will sponsor 500 victims of Boko Haram violence from Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states to acquire vocational skills. According to a UN official, the skills training would include hair dressing, tailoring, knitting, catering and decorations, shoe-making, leather works and computer studies.

It would be recalled that this skill acquisition program has reached an advance stage in that the chosen 500 have gone through the first stage of training, which has to do with orientation on peaceful coexistence and other related social issues. The actual training is expected to begin later in the year. The united nation hinted that the skill acquisition program may be a yearly thing so as to give as many Nigerians as possible an opportunity to get empowered and stand on their own feet economically.