Abacha’s Loot: Okonjo-Iweala Reacts To Call For Her Probe

Paul Nwachukwu, media adviser to former minister of Finance Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has alleged that the clamour from Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) that the ex-minister be probed over management of the Abacha loot is politically sponsored.

According to Nwachukwu, the move by SERAP to instigate a probe against Okonjo-Iweala is aimed at serving an agenda, Vanguard reports.

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala

Nwachukwu said: “It is curious that SERAP, ignoring more worthy issues, decided to embark on this fishing expedition of a 10 year old process that was handled in an exemplary and transparent fashion. This shows that neither the organization nor its charges should be taken seriously.

“Even though SERAP says its allegations were based on a World Bank statement, it neglected to tell the world that the same World Bank actively collaborated with the Federal Ministry of Finance on a 2006 field report which analyzed how the repatriated funds were used.

“It will be recalled that, as part of the repatriation process, the Swiss government requested and the Nigerian government under President Obasanjo agreed that the World Bank should monitor the use of the repatriated Abacha funds.

“The field survey, released in 2006, is titled ‘Utilization of Repatriated Abacha loot: Results of the Field Monitoring Exercise’. It shows that specific funds were indeed transparently programmed and used to boost the budgets of specific target ministries in 2004 and 2005.”

According to Nwachukwu, SERAP has made itself a tool in the hands of corrupt interests.

He said: “To say the obvious, civil society groups play a very important role in putting positive pressure on government to remain focused on good governance in order to ensure that clear and measurable results are achieved. No country can manage governance to global standards without civil society groups. And Nigeria is no exception. Nigeria has many credible advocacy groups doing important work in many areas.

“It is therefore sad that SERAP which has made other false allegations against Okonjo-Iweala is hiding under the hallowed umbrella of civil society while acting as a tool for reprehensible, corrupt vested interests,” he said.

“No amount of sponsored propaganda can conceal the fact that the implementation of the agreement with the Swiss government was done transparently and the report was publicly issued. The entire process was properly managed and reviewed with the help of reputable international organizations.”

SERAP had alleged that it received a 700-page information from World Bank on how the loot of late General Sani Abacha was being spent and a letter written by erstwhile minister of finance Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala in a letter dated January 9, 2015 to the World Bank.

Making this revelation public, SERAP executive director Adetokunbo Mumuni in a statement issued on Sunday, November 29 said: “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. We also received a letter dated 24 November 2015 from Mr Rachid Benmessaoud, Director of the World Bank in Africa.”

“In total, SERAP has received over 700 pages of documents, which we are now closely studying and scrutinizing with a view to discovering whether the documents contain details that Nigerians would like to see and whether the information corresponds to the facts on the ground. After this analysis, we will respond to the Bank and consider our options, including filing an appeal before the Bank’s Access to Information Appeals Board and taking other appropriate legal actions nationally and internationally to discover what exactly happened to Abacha recovered loot.”

Detailing how the how Iweala spent the Abacha’s loot, the SERAP said: “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 was 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”

The organization wondered how such huge fund could be spent on those projects listed by the former minister with no correspond evidence on ground to show that such fund was being expended. Base on this, SERAP called on President Muhammadu Buhari to take urge action to probe Iweala’s handling of the recovered fund.

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Abacha’s Loot: Okonjo-Iweala Reacts To Call For Her Probe