THE Federal Government and the United States have signed an agreement for the repatriation of $23.4 million allegedly stolen by former Head of State Sani Abacha.
Money allegedly stolen from the national treasury by the late Abacha, now known as the ‘Abacha Loot’, have been repatriated from most countries in Europe and the Americas since his death in 1998.
The agreement for the repatriation of the fresh N23.4 million Abacha loot was signed on Tuesday in the office of the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice Abubakar Malami.
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Malami signed on behalf of the Nigerian government, while the US Ambassador to Nigeria, Mary Beth Leonard, signed on behalf of the US government.
He said the decision to return the stolen money, which he tagged as Abacha-5, was a product of a series of negotiations and meetings between Nigeria, the US Department of Justice and the United Kingdom (UK) National Crime Agency, (NCA).
The AGF added that the recovered fund, when returned, will be invested in three ongoing projects by the Federal Government, including the ongoing Abuja-Kaduna road and the 2nd Niger Bridge.
“It is worthy to note that in line with the terms of this Agreement, Mr President had already approved the funds to be utilized for the ongoing Presidential Development Infrastructural Funds (PIDF) projects, namely; Abuja-Kano Road, Lagos-Ibadan Express Way and the Second Niger Bridge under the supervision of Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA).
“The President’s mandate to my office is to ensure that all international recoveries are transparently invested and monitored by civil society organisations to complete these three projects within the agreed timeline,” Malami said.
So far, trillions of Naira of the Abacha loot have been repatriated, with many more believed to still be in the vaults of Western and Asian banks.
In 2006, about $723 million in Abacha loot was returned to Nigeria from Switzerland.
In 2020, the US and Jersey also agreed to return over $308 million in confiscated funds to Nigeria.
A reporter with the ICIR
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