The United States (US) government has signed an agreement with the federal government to repatriate $23 million Abacha loot to Nigeria.
The agreement was signed on Tuesday at the office of Abubakar Malami, minister of justice and attorney-general of the federation.
In his speech, Malami said the decision to return the stolen funds, which is tagged ‘Abacha-5’, was a product of a series of negotiations and meetings between Nigeria, the US department of justice and the UK National Crime Agency.
He said that in line with the terms of the agreement, Mr. President had already approved the funds to be utilized for the ongoing presidential development infrastructural funds, PIDF, projects namely; Abuja-Kano road, Lagos-Ibadan expressway and the second Niger bridge under the supervision of Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA)..
Malami also said that the president’s mandate to his 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.
Speaking at the signing ceremony, Mary Leonard, US ambassador to Nigeria, said that the US department of justice and the FBI seized these funds in response to General Abacha and his associates’ violation of US laws when they laundered these assets to the US and into accounts in the UK.
She said that the signing is the result of an extensive and high level corporation between the US, UK and the federal republic of Nigeria to make the Nigerian people whole and the agreement is also a kind of collaboration that their government must continue in order to right the wrongs committed under the previous regimes.
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