Federal government to begin disbursing Abacha loot to 19 states as from July

FINANCE minister Kemi Adeosun has revealed that the federal government will begin disbursing the $322m Abacha loot through Conditional Cash Transfers (CCT) to 302,000 poor households in 19 states as from July.

It is believed that General Sani Abacha looted as much as $5bn during the five year period he ruled Nigeria between 1994 and 1999, stashing millions away in foreign accounts. Switzerland in particular has managed to recover some of this loot and the money has been handed back to the federal government.

Tukur Rumar of the National Cash Transfer Office (NTCO), revealed a roundtable seminar on assets recovery organised by the Swiss Embassy in Abuja, that this money is now available and will be paid to poor Nigerians. Held on Thursday, the seminar was organised to intimate citizens and civil society organisations on the efforts both nations were making on asset recovery after the Post-Global Forum on Assets Recovery held in Washington in December 2017.

At the forum, Nigeria made commendable commitments on beneficial ownership, tax transparency, asset recovery, transparency management of recovered funds and payments to victims of corruption. According to Mr Rumar, these recovered funds will now be dispersed to Niger, Kogi, Ekiti, Osun, Oyo, Kwara, Cross River, Bauchi, Gombe, Jigawa, Benue, Taraba, Adamawa, Kano, Katsina, Kaduna, Plateau, Nasarawa and Anambra states as well as to and internally displaced camps in Borno State.

He added that the benefiting households will receive N5,000 monthly based on the National Social Register (NSR) that the 19 states are already on. According to Mr Rumar, the programme was designed to also train beneficiaries on livelihood skills, social skills and other programmes that would change their lives completely.

Mr Rumar, however, said NCTO had been making payments to the 46,000 poor and vulnerable households across the 19 states since December 2016, adding that the number had increased to 290,000. Iorwa Apera, the national coordinator of the National Social Safety Net Coordinating Office, said 503,055 households were already on the NSR register from the 19 states, adding that by July, there would be a social register for all the states of the federation.

Mr Apera said: “Some of the states delayed but the other ones were quick enough to set up infrastructure that allowed us to start work there but all the states are now on board as they have set up their state operating offices and donated office equipment to us. As states come on board, we will enrol them and extend to the beneficiary register and presently we are generating data in all the states now."

Linda Ekeator of the office of the Special Adviser to the President on Social Investment said the Abacha loot was invested in the social investment programme because it was a programme that was already supported by the World Bank. She said before the money was returned to Nigeria, there was an agreement with the Swiss government that it should be used for alleviating poverty and this was to be done with the supervision of the World Bank.

Switzerland's ambassador to Nigeria, Eric Mayoraz, said the $722m of the Abacha family money that was hidden in Switzerland was fully repatriated in 2005. He also said that the $322m which was repatriated in December 2017, was money that was frozen by the Swiss attorney-general but was not domiciled in Switzerland but in other countries, mainly Luxembourg.

Mr Mayoraz added: “For possible new cases, Swiss legislation has fundamentally changed. The law in Switzerland does not allow bank secrecy anymore and all banks and financial institutions have a due diligence duty to ask everyone coming with money where it is coming from.

“That does not mean that there are no illegal or stolen assets now in Switzerland but then there is another instrument I signed myself with the Nigerian Ministry of Justice and Switzerland two years ago on mutual legal assistance and this is for new cases. Now, this agreement with our own justice ministry and Nigeria is that there will be direct communication and exchange on mutual legal request and we are really collaborating with EFCC and other agencies in Nigeria."

David Ugolor, the executive director of Africa Network for Environment and Economic Justice, called on Nigerian citizens not to keep spreading rumours about the whereabouts of recovered loots. He also said civil society organisations should be given access to the social register to enable them monitor properly whether or not the beneficiaries received what was due to them.