SERAP: Okonjo-Iweala lied on Abacha loot

The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) wants the federal government to probe the tenure of Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala at the ministry of finance in relation to how part of the funds recovered from Sani Abacha was spent.

The organisation said it was in possession of some World Bank documents which revealed correspondences between the former minister and the bank.

According to Adetokunbo Mumuni, executive director of SERAP, Okonjo-Iweala told the bank that the loot recovered from Switzerland was used for developmental projects across the six geo-political zones of the country.

In a statement issued on Sunday, Mumuni said his organisation was still “scrutinising the documents”, totalling over 700 pages, before taking its next line of action.

The statement read: “SERAP can confirm that last week we received several documents from Ann May of the Access to Information Team of the World Bank following our access to information request to the bank.

“Our preliminary review of some of the documents have revealed certain facts which raise more questions about what exactly happened to Abacha loot: first, that Mrs Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala as minister of finance in a letter dated 9 January 2005 explained to the bank that around $500m (N65bn) of Abacha loot received from Switzerland was programmed into and spent in the 2004 and 2005 budgets on roads, electricity, education, water and health across all 6 geo-political zones of Nigeria.

“Second, Mrs Iweala explained to the bank that N18.60bn was spent on roads; N10.83bn spent on health; N7bn spent on education; N6.20bn spent on water; and N21.70bn spent on electricity. She also said that part of the funds were spent on new and ongoing investment projects.

“Mrs Iweala said that relevant federal ministries have the full details on the spending of repatriated Abacha loot. The Bank noted that there was no funds monitoring and tracking mechanism in place to trace the spending of Abacha loot.

“Third, Mr Rachid Benmessaoud confirmed that the World Bank played a monitoring role in a return of assets by Switzerland but that the bank is not currently involved in the monitoring of spending of Abacha loot that have been returned to Nigeria in recent years. He said that the bank would be prepared to set up a mechanism to monitor the use of Abacha loot if the Nigerian government request the bank’s assistance in this respect.

“Given Mrs Okonjo-Iweala’s involvement in the spending of Abacha loot, SERAP calls on President Muhammadu Buhari to urgently probe the role of the ministry of finance and relevant federal ministries at the time in the spending of Abacha loot particularly given the strong allegations of mismanagement that characterised the use of the funds.

“Although Mrs Okonjo-Iweala said that Abacha loot was spent in the 2004 and 2005 budgets on roads, electricity, education, water and health across all 6 geo-political zones of Nigeria, there is no evidence of such projects as millions of Nigerians continue to travel on dead roads, while they continue to lack access to adequate electricity supply, water, health and quality education. Therefore, President Buhari can no longer continue to remain silent on this issue of public interest if Nigerians are to continue to trust him in his fight against corruption.”

By law, all revenue accruing to Nigeria goes into the federation account where it is shared among the tiers tiers of government on a monthly basis.

Recovered stolen funds also go into the account.