The
Federal Government has submitted five proposals to the government of
Switzerland detailing how it will spend the $132million Abacha loot if
returned. Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar
Malami told the Nation that the Federal government was trying to meet the terms
of Switzerland before the money is returned.
“We got a request from Switzerland that we should provide a list of
projects that we will spend the $321million on. The government has done its
homework and submitted five proposals that have bearing with social benefit
projects. Some of the projects have been captured in this year’s budget. They
will impact on all Nigerians. They wrote back to us on the fact that they will
want the World Bank to be directly involved in the monitoring of the projects
with a caveat that we have to pay monitoring fees. We have not come to terms
with paying monitoring fees for all the projects. We have not taken any
decision to pay the bills for all the projects or to restrict the payment to
two of the projects. We are already collaborating with World Bank on three
projects which will accelerate the nation’s development.”he said
The
Federal government in March last year signed an agreement with Switzerland
government on the return of the $321million. The agreement titled:
“Letter of Intent on the restitution of illegally-acquired assets
forfeited in Switzerland,” was signed by Malami, and the Swiss Head of Foreign
Affairs Department, Didier Burkhalter.
It stated that $321 million acquired fraudulently
by the Abacha family, was initially deposited in Luxemburg before being
confiscated by the Swiss Republic Judiciary and Canton of Geneva following a
December 11, 2014 forfeiture order.
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