The federal government, yesterday admitted receiving a whopping $322.51million from the Swiss Government, being part of the looted funds recovered from former Head of State, late General Sani Abacha.
Minister of Finance, Mrs kemi Adeosun, made the disclosure yesterday, in a statement in Abuja.
In the statement signed by her Special Adviser, Media and Communications, Mr. Oluyinka Akintunde, the minister said the government received the money since December 2017.
Adeosun said there was no controversy surrounding the recovery of stolen funds by the former head of state from the Swiss Government.
The statement also clarified that she never blocked the facilitating lawyers from accessing their commission from the recovered proceeds.
Akintunde said: “The minister wishes to dissociate herself and the Federal Ministry of Finance from recent malicious and misleading media reports on the Abacha refunds.
“The minister had, at no time, written any letter to the President or any member of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) on the payment of lawyers for the Abacha recovery.
“The attention of the Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, has been drawn to false media reports of a “strongly-worded letter to the President” objecting to the payment of $16.9 million fees to two lawyers for the recovery of Abacha funds.”
She also refuted the flawed media reports of controversy surrounding the Abacha recovery, disclosing that the sum of US$322,515,931.83 was received into a Special Account in the Central Bank of Nigeria on December 18, 2017 from the Swiss Government.
“For the avoidance of doubt, there is no controversy concerning the recovery of the Abacha monies from the Swiss Government,” the statement further clarified.
In 1999, the federal government hired Mr. Enrico Monfrini, a Swiss lawyer, to recover the Abacha loot.
After a successful negotiation by Monfrini, the recovered money was domiciled with the Attorney-General of Switzerland, pending the signing of a MoU with Nigeria to avoid the issues of accountability that trailed previous recoveries.
All that was left after the signing of the MoU was a government-to-government communication for the money to be repatriated to Nigeria.
However, the Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, SAN, later engaged the services of another set of lawyers in 2016 for a fee of about N6 billion ($16.9 million).
The two Nigerian lawyers are Mr. Oladipo Okpeseyi, SAN, and Temitope Adebayo.
Masari wants looters exposed
Meanwhile, the Katsina state Governor, Hon Aminu Bello Masari, has asked Nigerian accountants to start exposing chief executives of Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) stealing public funds.
Masari was speaking when he received the National President, Association of Accountants of Nigeria (ANAN), Alhaji Shehu Ladan, who paid him a courtesy call at the Government House, Katsina.
The governor explained that chief executives could not have dipped their hands into public treasuries without the connivance of accountants, who, according to him, are custodians of public monies.
Masari contended that the process of nation-building would not be complete without each and everyone playing his or her own part.
The governor therefore requested for sacrifices from all professionals for the nation to forge ahead, stressing that nations are not built by lazy men.
He urged them to be vigilant and stop mass looting in the MDAs, as their own contribution to the ongoing war against corruption by the APC-led administration of President Muhammad Buhari.
Earlier, ANAN President, Alhaji Ladan, had told Governor Masari that they were in Katsina as part of a second session of the 2018 mandatory continuing professional development programme, which is an orientation and induction of new members in Katsina state.
Ladan, who is the Sa’in Yawuri, explained that the programme is themed “Enhancing proficiency in professionalism in public and private sectors.”
He commended Governor Masari for the annual payment of the MCPD and DTA to ANAN members in the state public service, as well as the payment of induction fees for all the new members of the association in the state.
He said the governor had also been sponsoring members to attend seminars and conferences within and outside Nigeria, and the payment of rent for temporary office of the association in the state.
The ANAN boss also announced that the governor had provided a piece of land along Army Barracks, near Tsangaya, for the construction of permanent office for the state chapter of ANAN, and the support to establish a Nigerian College of Accountancy Matured Study Centre in Katsina.
While commending the state government for the feats in education, agriculture and health sectors, he urged the governor to provide foreign scholarship to some accountants to further their studies in Dublin of Ireland and Sydney, starting from June to November this year.
