Where is $500 million recovered from the late
Gen. Sani Abacha’s family?This is the question the Economic and Financial
Crimes Commission (EFCC) is battling to answer.
The cash was recovered from the family of the
late Head of State during ex-President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration. It was repatriated from slush accounts in
foreign jurisdictions.
The foreign governments, which released
the loot to the Federal Government after hard negotiations, demanded that
the cash be used for concrete developments, including infrastructure, such as
roads, water, healthcare and education.
EFCC detectives tracking the $500million have
discovered that it was diverted.
Of the $500million, about $250million was
released to the Office of National Security Adviser (ONSA)during the tenure of
Col. Sambo Dasuki without appropriation. The balance of $250million cannot be
traced yet.
The Nation learnt that detectives
discovered that the $250million was illegally withdrawn barely two months to
the end of Jonathan’s administration.
Investigators are said to be working on clues
that part of the cash was spent on “extraneous matters, including media
services, opinion polls and personal matters”.
According to a fact-sheet on the investigation,
the $250million was withdrawn between March 2, 2015 and April 21, 2015.
About $36,155,000 (N13,015,800billion) of the
$250million was also withdrawn in cash “without any purpose” on March 2nd, 9th,
16th and 18th of 2015.
Detectives have retrieved documents relating to
the alleged “re-looting” of the Abacha loot.
In the fact-sheet, the ONSA in a memo of
January 12, 2015, asked the former Coordinating Minister for the Economy and
Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, to transfer $300million .
More to come…
- The Nation
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