The Nigerian Government has drawn up a number of projects across key ministries of government on which to spend the $480 million Abacha loots, The Bridge News has reported.
The online publication, in its exclusive report this Monday, said the stolen monies, which have been traced to secret bank accounts in the United States (US), Switzerland, the Island of Man and other secrete locations across the world, have been a subject of controversy as the US government had over the years refused to release the money on the claims that it would be re-looted by government officials.
But a new twist was added in April, during the state visit of Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari where it was agreed between officials of the US Department of Justice and the Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami to repatriate the $480 million looted by the former head of state, late General Sani Abacha.
Our correspondent gathered from sources at both the department of justice and the office of the Nigerian attorney general that both governments agreed to release the money on the condition that the money is tied to the execution of some specific projects in Nigeria.
It was also gathered that the US government insisted that it must be part of the project monitoring mechanisms to guide against the cash been re-looted.
One of the sources who spoke on the condition of anonymity told The Bridge News, on Monday, in Abuja that the ministries of aviation, Justice, Works and Water Resources have been shortlisted to benefit from the looted fund
The respective ministries, our correspondent was told, have been directed by President Buhari to submit critical projects on which the looted funds would be spent.
According to the source “The condition given by the US government for the release of the fund is for the money to be tied to specific projects in the country and we have directed the ministries of aviation, justice, works and water resources to identified projects for the president to approve so that we can forward them to the US government”.
The source added that so far “ministries of justice and aviation have submitted their projects and we are waiting for works and water resources. Once the projects are submitted and the president approves, we will again meet with US officials to fine-tune the final arrangement for the release of the fund”.