The Federal Government has admitted that it lacks records of the specific amount of public funds embezzled by former military head of state Sani Abacha and the manner in which the administrations of Olusegun Obasanjo, Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, and Goodluck Jonathan utilized approximately $5 billion of the recovered loot between 1999 and 2015.
Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) made Freedom of Information (FoI) requests to Mr Abukabar Malami (SAN), the Attorney General of the Federation, and Minister of Justice, as well as Mrs Zainab Ahmed, the Minister of Finance, Budget, and National Planning, seeking information regarding the exact amount of public funds stolen by Abacha and details of the spending of about $5 billion recovered loot since 1999.
In response to the FoI requests, the Federal Government disclosed that it does not have detailed records of projects executed with the Abacha loot, the associated companies and contractors, agreements on the loot, and the implementation status of all projects since 1999. Furthermore, the government confessed that it does not possess information concerning the exact amount stolen by Abacha and the spending of recovered loot between 1999 and 2015.
The Ministry of Justice, in a response to the update on the FOI request, acknowledged that they do not hold the information on the exact amount of public funds stolen by Abacha and the manner in which recovered loot was spent during the period from 1999 to 2015. However, the Ministry did mention that it had recovered $322 million from Switzerland in January 2018 and $308 million from the Island of Jersey in collaboration with the USA. It further specified the projects for which the funds were designated.
However, dissatisfied with the response, SERAP accused the federal government of failing to provide adequate details on the spending and planned spending of the $630 million it claimed to have recovered since 2018. The organization further revealed its intent to take legal action under the FoI Act to compel the government to fully comply with its requests, given the alleged lack of response from Mrs Zainab Ahmed.