Recovered loot not enough to revive economy, says Lai

Lai Mohammed, minister of information and culture, says the looted fund recovered so far by the current administration is a far cry from what the country needs to revive the economy.

Mohammed said this on Friday when he appeared on a NAN forum in Abuja.

“What we have recovered and if my record is right, is about N78 billion, and $3 million. We have been able to block various accounts in which about $9 billion dollar was found, but those are not money available to us because we are still in court over them,” he said.

“The government spends N165 billion every month to pay federal civil servants, even what has been so far recovered will not even pay 50 per cent of the salaries in a month.’’

Mohammed assured Nigerians that every penny recovered will be judiciously spent and nobody could “re-loot it” under this administration.

He asked Nigerians to understand that what had been recovered was so little compared to what the people needed on a continuous basis.

On budget release, he recalled that the ministry of finance released N400 billion for capital projects, mostly on roads, railway, and power.

“N400 billion seems a lot, but you must also understand that for three or four years contractors were not paid,” he said.

“So, when we paid this money to contractors, they also use part of it to settle their own debt, they use part of it to recall laid off staff.

“But the truth of the matter is that many of them have been paid, they are yet to mobilise to site and they cannot do so until the rains are over.”

Mohammed said what the government owed the contractors was about N2 trillion.