- Malami has disclosed why he referred to Abacha loot as assets
- According to the minister, the money became an asset when it was repatriated
- According to him, the federal government is the beneficiary of the asset
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The Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami has faulted those criticising him for describing the recently repatriated Abacha loots as “Abacha assets”.
Malami, in a statement issued by Dr Umar Gwandu, his Special Assistant on Media, on Wednesday in Abuja said his attention had been drawn to the needless media hype relating to purported characterisation of the recovered assets associated with the former Head of State as “Abacha Assets”.
He maintained that the choice of words was deliberate.
“It is to be noted that by way of antecedence, I have been consistently describing the recovered funds as “Abacha loot” at several fora during the process of recovery particularly before the eventual repatriation of the funds.
“The point needs to be made that when the seal of legitimacy was appended to the funds by way of repatriation it became an asset in favour of the federal government as a beneficial owner of same.
He said that the use of the word `assets’ in relation to the post-recovery of looted funds is to qualify same as federal government assets.
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Meanwhile, Legit.ng had reported that the presidency has disclosed that the $311 million Abacha loot returned to Nigeria from the United States would be used for infrastructure development.
Garba Shehu, the senior special assistant to the president on media and publicity in a statement on Tuesday, May 5,
He said the funds will also be invested in the Mambilla Power Project which, when completed, will provide electricity to some three million homes - over ten million citizens in the country.
Garba explained that the receipt of the stolen monies from the United Kingdom and Switzerland has afforded the country the opportunity to develop the nation.
He said the return of the stolen funds is evidence that the US, UK, and other jurisdictions trust that the Buhari administration would put the funds to good use.
The presidential spokesperson said Buhari administration is committed to zero tolerance to corruption in politics and public administration.
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