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Okonjo-iweala: I Paid Dasuki $322m From Abacha Fund by Engineer123(m): 11:40am On Dec 10, 2015 |
Former Minister of Finance Ngozi Okonjo Iweala
yesterday said she had paid former National
Security Adviser to the President, Col Sambo
Dasuki (rtd) $322m (about N63billion) from
recovered Abacha funds to finance military
operations.
She was reacting to online media reports that
accused her of illegally diverting the Abacha funds
to the office of the former NSA. The money was
returned to Nigeria in January 2015.
The statement signed by her Media Adviser, Paul C
Nwabuikwu, said the attempt to link the former
minister to any misuse of the funds for any
purpose other than security was baseless.
She explained that based on a request by Dasuki,
former president Goodluck Jonathan set up a
committee comprising of the former Minister of
Justice, the former NSA and herself to determine
how best to use both the returned and expected
funds for development.
Okonjo-Iweala said when the committee met, the
NSA made a case for using the returned funds for
urgent security operations arguing that there could
not be any development without peace and
security.
“Based on this, a decision was taken to deploy
about $322m for the military operations, while the
expected $700m would be applied for development
programmes as originally conceived.
“Following the discussions and based on the
urgency of the NSA’s memo, Dr Okonjo-Iweala
requested the president to approve the transfer of
the requested amount to the NSA’s office for the
specified purposes,” the minister said.
However, Okonjo-Iweala said as captured in the
memo, she insisted on three conditions: A. only a
part, not the entire Abacha funds, would be spent
on the arms; the rest would be invested in
development projects as originally conceived B. the
money was to be treated as borrowed funds which
would be paid back as soon as possible C. the
NSA’s office was to account for the spending to
the president who was the Commander in Chief,
given the fact that the Minister of Finance is not
part of the security architecture and does not
participate in the security council.
Mrs Okonjo-Iweala’s memo to the president, seen
by PREMIUM TIMES, showed that 50 per cent of
the recently recovered Abacha loot was allotted for
“urgent security need” such as the procurement of
arms and ammunition while the other half was set
aside to be used for development purposes.
The letter, dated January 20, 2015, which was
addressed to Mr Jonathan, revealed that the money
was transferred following a January 12, 2015
request by the office of the NSA under Mr Dasuki
for funds for the procurement of arms and
ammunition as well as intelligence equipment.
“Please find a request by the National Security
Adviser (NSA) for the transfer of $300 million and
£5.5 million of the recovered Abacha funds to an
ONSA [Office of the National Security Adviser]
operations account,” the letter read.
“The NSA has explained that this is to enable the
purchase of ammunition, security, and other
intelligence equipment for the security agencies in
order to enable them fully confront the ongoing
Boko Haram threat.
“His request is sequel to the meeting you chaired
with the committee on the use of recovered funds
where the decision was made that recovered
Abacha funds would be split 50-50 between urgent
security needs to confront Boko Haram and
development need (including a portion for the
Future Generations window of the Sovereign Wealth
Fund),” Mrs Okojo-Iweala wrote.
The former NSA, Dasuki is currently on trial in
connection with $2.1 billion arms scam. He is
being accused of spending a total of N643 billion
in extra-budgetary expenditure.
Also arrested for the alleged fraud are former
Sokoto state governor Attahiru Bafarawa and
Chairman Africa Independent Television (AIT)
Raymond Dokpesi.
Both Bafarawa and Dokopesi are said have been
paid N4.6 billion and N2.1 billion respectively for
unstated purposes.
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Re: Okonjo-iweala: I Paid Dasuki $322m From Abacha Fund by Mynd44: 11:42am On Dec 10, 2015 |
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