The Presidency explained yesterday that the returned $311million looted Abacha fund will be spent on infrastructural development in Nigeria. The Presidency also revealed that part of the loot that was returned last year was used for grain grants and school feeding programmes while adding that the fight against COVID-19 would have be tougher if not for the returned Abacha loot.
The Presidency particularly disclosed that the recently returned loot had already been earmarked for important and long overdue infrastructure development like the second Niger Bridge, the Lagos-Ibadan expressway, Abuja-Kaduna-Kano expressway and Mambilla Power Project.
This was issued in a statement by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu.
The statement titled ‘’The return of the Abacha stolen millions from the United States and Jersey “ remarked that the money that was just returmed and the previously returned funds testifiedz to the improving relationship between Nigeria and United States.
The statement reads: “ On Monday, May 4, 2020, some $311 million US Dollars – stolen from the citizens of Nigeria during the Abacha regime – were safely returned to our country from the United States. ‘’These funds have already been allocated, and will be used in full, for vital and decades-overdue infrastructure development: The second Niger Bridge, the Lagos-Ibadan and Abuja-Kaduna-Kano expressways – creating tens of thousands of Nigerian construction jobs and local skills, which can then be useful in future projects. “Part of the funds will also be invested in the Mambilla Power Project which, when completed, will provide electricity to some three million homes – over ten million citizens – in our country.
“The receipt of these stolen monies – and the hundreds of millions more that have already been returned from the United Kingdom and Switzerland – are an opportunity for the development of our nation, made far harder for those decades the country was robbed of these funds.”
