Govt shares $322.5m Abacha loot to 1.9m Nigerians

Government distributes $322.5 million in Abacha wealth to 1.9 million Nigerians.

Government distributes $322.5 million in Abacha wealth to 1.9 million Nigerians.

On June 24, 2022, from Abuja, Nduka Chiejina

The whole $322.5 million Abacha loot of 2017 has been distributed by the federal government to 1.9 million vulnerable and impoverished Nigerians.

The funds were placed and accumulated interest of $11 million prior to the release.

This announcement was made yesterday in Abuja by Mr. David Ugolor, Executive Director of ANEEJ, an independent monitor providing an objective report on the utilization of the monies.

According to Mr. Ugolor, "the Abacha loot is exhausted. Around 1.9 million impoverished Nigerians received the $11 million in interest that accrued on the money that was saved.

The National Social Register was used to determine who would receive benefits, and the register is regularly updated to remove those who have passed away, Ugolor continued. "No politically motivated data was used in selecting the beneficiaries."

The Abacha loot that was recovered, according to the ANEEJ Executive Director, "has been spent; we have an obligation to educate Nigerians and then to make sure to tell them what the money was utilized for."

People sitting down at home and accusing one another of stealing Abacha's money, he said, is a highly contentious matter. With this surveillance, we have accomplished something truly revolutionary.

Ugolor stated that at the end of the following month, ANEEJ will publish data on the distribution of funds by state.

He claims that "four states have not benefited from the distribution of these N5,000, so we initiated an advocacy, the advocacy produced results, and the government responded through the National Cash Transfer Office (NCTO), and we have since paid all these four states. Edo, Ondo, Kebi, and Enugu are the four states.

forn December 2017, Switzerland reimbursed the Federal Government of Nigeria for USD322.5 million in stolen money that the late General Sani Abacha's family had obtained illegally.

One of the programs to combat poverty under the National Social Investment Program, the Federal Ministry of Finance requested that the funds be used to finance the $500 million IDA-financed National Social Safety Net Program (NASSP) in the form of Conditional Cash Transfers to Nigerians who are poor and vulnerable.

On the condition that the World Bank oversees its usage, a Swiss court decided in March 2015 that the money be returned. As a result, a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was signed by the governments of Nigeria, Switzerland, and the World Bank. It also identified Network on Asset Recovery (NAR), which is made up of In order to provide an unbiased assessment on how the funds were used, civil society organizations under the direction of ANEEJ served as an impartial monitor.

The Federal Ministry of Justice subsequently drafted and formalized terms of reference for CSOs monitoring the $322.5 million in Abacha loot that had been recovered, and ANEEJ was recognized as one of the CSOs that represented the NAR in communications with the Federal Government of Nigeria. Monitoring and reporting on the utilization of the monies to the intended beneficiaries was the task.

The Monitoring of Recovered Assets in Nigeria via the Transparency and Accountability (MANTRA) programme was launched by ANEEJ in 2018. As part of the MANTRA initiative, ANEEJ collaborated with six regional partners, 35 CSOs, and more than 500 monitors for the exercise across the nation's six geopolitical regions.

The $322.5 million covering the August/September 2018 payment round to recipients in 19 States was used in the exercise, which resulted in the first distribution report.