Immediate past Minister of Finance and Coordinator of the Economy, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala on Wednesday disclosed that she loaned $322m Abacha loot to former National Security Adviser, Col Sambo Dasuki for the purpose of prosecuting the war against Boko Haram.
In a statement issued by her Media Adviser, Paul Nwabuikwu on Wednesday, Okonjo-Iweala said ;
“Some new Abacha funds of about $322 million were returned with another $700m still expected to be returned. Former President (Goodluck) Jonathan set up a Committee comprising the former Minister of Justice, former NSA and the former Minister of Finance to determine how best to use both the returned and expected funds for development.
“... the NSA made a case for using the returned funds for urgent security operations since, he noted, there cannot 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.”
The former Finance Minister said that based on the urgency of Dasuki's memo, she requested former President Goodluck Jonathan “to approve the transfer of the requested amount to the NSA’s Office for the specified purposes.”
She however said that her recommendation was based on certain conditions.
She said that 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 developmental projects as originally conceived. B. The money was to be treated as borrowed funds which would be paid back as soon as possible and 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.
“Throughout 2014, there were public complaints by the military hierarchy to President Goodluck Jonathan about the inadequacy of funds to fight the anti-terror war in the North East, resulting in Boko Haram making gains and even taking territories. A lot of the criticism was directed at the Federal Ministry of Finance under Dr Okonjo-Iweala which was accused of not doing enough to find funds for the operations,” the statement said.
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