Skip to main content

United States To Return $23 Million Looted Funds To Nigeria


The United States will turn over to Nigeria $23 million taken by former military ruler Sani Abacha, officials said at an event to sign the agreement on Tuesday, CNN reports.

Nigeria has reached several agreements to return stolen cash in recent years. Abacha ruled Africa's most populous nation and top oil exporter from 1993 until his death in 1998, during which time Transparency International estimated that he took up to $5 billion of public money. He was never charged.

US Ambassador Mary Beth Leonard said the cash was in UK accounts but was identified and frozen by US officials. She added that including the latest deal, the United States had agreed to repatriate more than $334.7 million linked to Abacha.

Attorney General Abubakar Malami said the funds would be used for infrastructure projects, including the Abuja-Kano road, the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, and the second Niger bridge under the supervision of the 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 organizations to compete for these three projects within the agreed timeline," Malami.

The US Justice Department has previously said that Nigeria must use money repatriated from funds looted by Abacha on agreed public projects or be forced to "replace" it.

In the past, Nigeria had secured the release of millions of dollars stashed in foreign accounts by the former dictator.

In 2017, the Swiss government released a statement announcing it had reached an agreement with Nigerian authorities and the World Bank on the return of $321 million to the West African country.

The released funds "will strengthen social security for the poorest sections of the Nigerian population," the statement said at the time.

In 2019, authorities in Jersey said they had seized more than $267 million from Abacha's family and associates. The laundered funds recovered from confiscated assets, belonging to the son of the late dictator, Mohammed Abacha, were found in a Channel Islands account held by a shell company.

The stolen funds were recovered and paid into a special recovery fund after a five-year legal battle and were agreed to be shared between the Nigerian government, Jersey, and the US government.

News Source CNN:CNN


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

In The Spotlight-N250m donation: Davido releases list of 292 beneficiaries

The list of 292 orphanages that benefited from his donation of N250 million, has been released by Nigerian singer, David Adeleke, popularly known as Davido.  Davido had sent out a video message to his friends and colleagues in the entertainment industry to send money to him as part of his birthday celebration in November 2021. After the shout out to his friends, the DMW label boss was able to amass over N100 million, in a few hours. This amount later grew to N200million in a few days. Davido then added a personal donation of N50 million to make it N250 million. Davido declared that he was giving the money to charity. He said that he would set up a committee to ensure the disbursement of the money to orphanages across the country. Guess what, Davido has now revealed that the money had been disbursed to 292 homes selected from all the states of the federation. This information was contained in a statement signed by the multi-award winning singer on Tuesday. The statement reads, “As p...

NDLEA-Suspended Head Of The Inspector-General Of Police (IGP) Intelligence Response Team (IRT), DCP Abba Kyari, Ran A Drug Syndicate.

The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has disclosed how the suspended head of the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Intelligence Response Team (IRT), DCP Abba Kyari, ran a drug syndicate. The NDLEA had earlier declared him wanted for drug trafficking. The NDLEA said an investigation revealed that the celebrated cop is a member of a drug syndicate operating across the globe. According to the spokesman of the agency, Mr Femi Babafemi, the saga started on Friday, January 21, 2022, when DCP Kyari initiated a call to one of the NDLEA officers in Abuja at 2:12 pm. He said when the officer returned the call two minutes later, Kyari informed him he was coming to see him, to discuss an operational matter after the Jumaat (weekly Friday prayer) service. Babafemi said, “He (Kyari) appeared at the agreed venue of the meeting with the officer and went straight to the crux of the matter. “His (NDLEA officer’s) team had intercepted and arrested some traffickers that came into the country f...

Breaking! Senator Godswill Akpabio Appointed As The Senate President of The 10th Assembly

The former Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Senator Godswill Akpabio has been anointed  as the Senate President of the 10th Assembly, while Hon. Tajudeen Abbas from Kaduna State has also been named as the Speaker of the House by the National Working Committee (NWC) of the All Progressives Congress (APC).                   Senator Godswill Akpabio This was disclosed during a press briefing to journalists by the party's National Publicity Secretary, Mr Felix Morka. After the party held a NEC meeting on Monday at the national secretariat of the party in Abuja. He said: “The National Working Committee of the All Progressives Congress (APC) met today, Monday, May 8, 2023 to consider reports of consultations and meetings held with the President-Elect, His Excellency, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, other Party leaders and stakeholders on zoning arrangement for 10th National Assembly leadership positions. "The NWC noted with respect the outcome of the m...