No Beneficiary Named In $300 Million Abacha Loot - Malami

The Federal Government, in response to the voices against the payment of $100 million to Abubakar Bagudu, has said that it has not engaged with a third party in repatriating $300 million of funds looted by Sani Abacha.

It also said that there was no transfer agreement between the Federal Government and any individual.

The Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), Abubakar Malami, through his spokesperson, Umar Gwandu, said this in an interview with the Voice of Nigeria and German media agency Deutsche Welle.

It was said that Nigeria was planning on transferring the sum of $100 million to the Governor of Kebbi State, Abubakar Bagudu, who was allegedly a culprit in the looting carried out by Abacha.

The AGF said that the money Nigeria is working to repatriate from the US was unconnected to the exemption of assets by former President Olusegun Obasanjo “pursuant to August 18, 2003 agreement by which President Obasanjo “resolved and released all claims and liabilities of any kind which exist or might exist against Atiku Bagudu in favour of or at the suit of any organ of government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria”.”

Malami said that there was no one named as a beneficiary in the agreement.

The statement by the AGF states, “Malami said the international community have developed confidence in the present administration in view of the fact that looted funds recovered by the President Muhammadu Buhari’s led administration, before now, were judiciously utilized for high-impact public oriented projects.

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“He said in the document of the agreement, it was clearly spelt out that the monies will be utilized in the Abuja-Kano and Lagos – Ibadan Express ways as well as the 2nd Niger Bridge only and the insinuation of third-party beneficiary outside the scope of the agreement is, therefore, baseless and unfounded.

“The Minister said Nigeria has no reputational issue over enforcement of agreements and treaties and it is, therefore, an impossibility and unimaginable for Nigeria to hand over some amount of money to a third party not expressly mentioned in the agreement after the three countries concerned signed an agreement on what to do with the repatriated funds.”