Okonjo-Iweala: I Paid Dasuki $322m From Abacha Fund
By Hamisu Muhammad
Nigeria Daily Trust
Dec 10 2015 12:55AM
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.
Read more at http://www.dailytrust.com.ng/news/general/okonjo-iweala-i-paid-dasuki-322m-from-abacha-fund/123639.html#MSLxE7QCbA9j7LtQ.99
ALLEGED $2bn arms deal PROBE: EFCC to summon Okonjo-Iweala
December 11, 2015
Nigerian Vanguard
Oshiomhole alleges ex-minister aided looting of stolen funds
I secured ex-President Jonathan’s approval — Okonjo-Iweala
Okonjo-Iweala should tender apology to Nigerians — SERAP
By Soni Daniel, Regional Editor, North & Ikechukwu Nnochiri
ABUJA— Indications emerged last night that the Federal Government would extend its dragnet towards apprehending and prosecuting more individuals and groups which allegedly helped themselves with huge funds meant for the acquisition of arms for the armed forces, leaving the soldiers to fight with bare hands.
Meanwhile, the war of words between Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State and former Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala continued, yesterday, as the governor alleged that the former minister facilitated looting of funds by officials of the past admiistration.
Already, operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission probing how funds meant for arms were diverted and stolen by top politicians, have stumbled on fresh evidence that senior officials of the Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank of Nigeria were actively involved in the transfer of funds to the suspects.
The operatives are upset that rather than help to protect the fortunes of the country, the said officials aided and abetted politicians to bolt away with the nation’s scarce resources.
The agency also discovered that most of the records which the Office of the National Security Adviser, ONSA, used in collecting the huge sums of public funds from the relevant government agencies and paying the sludge funds to the politicians, were not kept in the office of the embattled NSA.
It was learnt last night that EFCC operatives were set to summon the former Minister of Finance & Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Dr. Ngozi Okojo-Iweala and some top officials of the CBN to shed more light on what they know about the arms budget said to have been diverted by bigwigs of one of the political parties.
Also to be invited based on evidence of disbursement from the apex bank, are some serving and retired top officials of the CBN who helped in the disbursement of the arms cash to the beneficiaries.
Vanguard learnt that the decision to summon the former minister and the apex bank officials followed the discovery that the bank played an active part in wiring various sums of money to persons and institutions at home and abroad without paying attention to due process.
It was the gamut of transaction documents from the CBN that has assisted them to trace and arrest the high profile politicians and their cronies, who benefitted from the public funds meant for arms.
EFCCA source said: “It is clear from our discovery that some money taken from the Abacha loot was used to secure some arms and fight insurgency but it is also clear that a larger part of the money was diverted and nobody raised an eyebrow.
“We want these people to come and give us further clarifications on why they released the money and who got what and why.”
It was gathered that documents at the CBN have established that the $15 million cash which the office of the NSA ferried for the purchase of arms and was seized by the South African Government was part of the Abacha loot. The country is yet to refund the cash to Nigeria.
It was also learnt that part of the Abacha loot was used to secure the services of mercenaries and guerrillas from some countries to assist in re-taking 22 Nigerian territories in the North-East from Boko Haram.
The government at the time had engaged some of the foreign fighters to train troops in anti-terrorism warfare, intelligence gathering and counter terrorism which enabled them recover the lost territories from the insurgents. In spite of that, it never admitted using any of them for any of its operations.
Already, eight of the suspects have been charged with stealing, money laundering and breach of the Public Procurement Act, while none of them is yet to be released even on bail.
Okonjo-Iweala helped Jonathan loot stolen funds, Oshiomhole insists
However, Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State yesterday continued his verbal assault on former Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, as the governor alleged that the ex-minister only helped the past administration to loot funds.
Oshiomhole who was the guest speaker at a dialogue session that was co-organised by the National Human Rights Commission, NHRC, and the Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, in Abuja yesterday to commemorate the International Human Rights Day, urged President Muhammadu Buhari not to spare the former Minister who he branded “Ali Baba”.
The Edo State governor spoke on a topic entitled “Towards Advancing the Right to Social Security Protection in Nigeria”.
Speaking to journalists at the end of his presentation, Oshiomhole, maintained that Okonjo-Iweala has serious questions to answer with regards to what happened to looted funds that were recovered from former military dictator, General Sani Abacha.
He said it was not enough for the former minister to “sit there in Washington”, and say that she “transferred part of the money recovered from Abacha to Dasuki for security purpose”.
“All I am just saying is that we are in a constitutional democracy. We are not under an informal arrangement. When you listen to all the narratives, all the disclosures and defence, you will realise that the Federal Government needs to prosecute everybody, not to exempt anyone.
“For example I have read in the newspapers and online, the former Minister of Finance and the Coordinating Minister of the Economy saying that she transferred part of the money recovered from Abacha to Dasuki for security purposes.
“Now, the first question the media should ask is, even under conditions of war, money must be appropriated. The National Assembly, I recall very well, when Aminu Tambuwal was Speaker of the House of Representatives, they reconvened on Sunday in order to attend to an urgent matter submitted by the President. So, the Constitution is very clear.
“Money was looted and foreign countries helped us recover that money and a minister assisted in ensuring that that money is re-looted again. And she is there in Washington and you are here languishing. I am saying that she also must be brought to justice”, the Edo governor said.
Okonjo-Iweala should apologise to Nigerians—SERAP
Meanwhile, Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has asked former Minister of Finance Ngozi Okonjo Iweala to “apologise to Nigerians for claiming recently that recovered Abacha loot was transparently spent while she knew that $322m (about N63billion) recovered Abacha funds were inappropriately released to finance the fight against Boko Haram.”
SERAP’s statement yesterday followed Mrs Okonjo-Iweala’s statement that she released about $322m to the former National Security Adviser Sambo Dasuki for military operations.
In a statement by SERAP executive director Adetokunbo Mumuni the organisation said: “The truth about the spending of Abacha loot is now coming out, and it is clear that Mrs Okonjo-Iweala was wrong to accuse SERAP of bias while she knew that we are simply seeking truth, justice and accountability on the spending of recovered Abacha loot.”
“Mrs Okonjo-Iweala’s approach of ‘no answers, no apology’ on how Abacha loot was spent is doing her reputation more harm than good. We hope that she will take cue from the World Bank (her former employer) when it defined ‘accountability and probity’ as knowing what task has been set, accepting to do it, and going about it with a sense of probity. Probity implying the willingness to self-disclose such information to which a specific stakeholder group has a right as well as tolerance of the scrutiny of such a stakeholder group on information to which they have a right,” the organisation said.
It will be recalled that the former Minister of Finance, had on Wednesday, disclosed that she transferred $322m (N64.148bn) from the looted funds recovered from Abacha to the Office of the National Security Adviser, NSA, to aid military operations in the North-East.
I secured ex-President’s approval — Okonjo-Iweala
In a statement by her Media Adviser, Mr. Paul Nwabuikwu, Dr. Okonjo-Iweala, insisted that she secured the approval of ex-President Jonathan before the fund was transferred. She stressed that the approval followed the recommendation of a committee set-up by former President Jonathan to advise the administration on the way forward.
The ex-Minister explained that based on recommendation of the committee, she personally requested that part of the recovered funds be used for security operations while the rest be channelled to developmental purposes.
She said her decision to release the funds to the ONSA, was sequel to accusations that she was starving the military of funds to prosecute war on terrorism.
Okonjo-Iweala specifically accused Oshiomhole “and other powerful and corrupt interests”, of sponsoring a campaign of falsehood against her.
“To achieve their evil propaganda objective of tarnishing her name, these evil elements have distorted the contents of a memo, dated January 20, 2015, in which the former Minister of Finance, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, responded to a request by the former National Security Adviser, Col. Ibrahim Dasuki (retired), for funds to prosecute the terror war against Boko Haram.
“The central responsibility of the Minister of Finance is to find sources of funding for the financing of approved national priorities such as security, job creation and infrastructure.”
How Okonjo-Iweala diverted N61.4bn Abacha loot to NSA —Report
December 10, 2015
Nigerian Vanguard
LAGOS — The immediate past Minister of Finance, and Co-ordinating Minister for the Economy, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, was said to have illegally approved the transfer of at least N61.4 billion ($300 million and £5.5 million) from funds recovered from late dictator, Sani Abacha, to the Office of the National Security Adviser, Sambo Dasuki, few weeks to the 2015 presidential election, it was gathered, yesterday
According to a letter signed by Okonjo-Iweala, which was obtained by online medium, Premium Times, the former Finance minister signed off the transfer of the funds but requested then President Goodluck Jonathan to directly demand accountability from the then National Security Adviser, Col Sambo Dasuki.
In her immediate reaction, however, Okonjo-Iweala explained that only a part of the fund recovered from late Abacha was spent on arms and not the entire fund.
Dasuki, alongside the former governor of Sokoto State, Attahiru Bafarawa, and founder of DAAR Communications, owners of Africa Independent Television and Raypower radio network, Raymond Dokpesi, are being investigated for their roles in the disbursement of $2.1 billion and N643 billion meant for the procurement of arms to fight the raging insurgency in Nigeria’s north east region.
Okonjo-Iweala’s letter dated January 20, 2015, which was addressed to Jonathan, revealed that the money was transferred following a January 12, 2015 request by the Office of the NSA under Dasuki for funds for the procurement of arms and ammunition as well as intelligence equipment.
The letter read:“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 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).”
She added that the letter was to seek Mr Jonathan’s approval for the funds to be disbursed to the ONSA.
The former minister further explained that the money being transferred formed part of the Federal Government Independent Revenue.
My role in disbursement of the fund —Okonjo-Iweala
In her response yesterday, Okonjo-Iweala said attempt to link her name to any misuse of these funds for any purpose other than security as far as she understood it is totally false and cannot stand.
In a statement signed by her Media Adviser, Paul C Nwabuikwu, she explained her role in the disbursement of the fund.
According to her, “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.
“In fact, the ministry, on several occasions, had to call press conferences to provide details of budgetary spending on the military, to show, against the background of limited resources and other urgent national priorities, that it was doing its best on funding security.
“It was about this time that some new Abacha funds of about $322 million were returned with another $700 million still expected to be returned. (This is not to be confused with the Abacha funds returned in 2005-2006 under the Obasanjo government whose use for developmental purposes was monitored by the World Bank as earlier explained by Dr Okonjo-Iweala).
“Former President 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 $322 million for the military operations, while the expected $700 million 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.
“But, 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 developmental 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.”
Nigeria Daily Trust
Dec 10 2015 12:55AM
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.
Read more at http://www.dailytrust.com.ng/news/general/okonjo-iweala-i-paid-dasuki-322m-from-abacha-fund/123639.html#MSLxE7QCbA9j7LtQ.99
ALLEGED $2bn arms deal PROBE: EFCC to summon Okonjo-Iweala
December 11, 2015
Nigerian Vanguard
Oshiomhole alleges ex-minister aided looting of stolen funds
I secured ex-President Jonathan’s approval — Okonjo-Iweala
Okonjo-Iweala should tender apology to Nigerians — SERAP
By Soni Daniel, Regional Editor, North & Ikechukwu Nnochiri
ABUJA— Indications emerged last night that the Federal Government would extend its dragnet towards apprehending and prosecuting more individuals and groups which allegedly helped themselves with huge funds meant for the acquisition of arms for the armed forces, leaving the soldiers to fight with bare hands.
Meanwhile, the war of words between Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State and former Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala continued, yesterday, as the governor alleged that the former minister facilitated looting of funds by officials of the past admiistration.
Already, operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission probing how funds meant for arms were diverted and stolen by top politicians, have stumbled on fresh evidence that senior officials of the Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank of Nigeria were actively involved in the transfer of funds to the suspects.
The operatives are upset that rather than help to protect the fortunes of the country, the said officials aided and abetted politicians to bolt away with the nation’s scarce resources.
The agency also discovered that most of the records which the Office of the National Security Adviser, ONSA, used in collecting the huge sums of public funds from the relevant government agencies and paying the sludge funds to the politicians, were not kept in the office of the embattled NSA.
It was learnt last night that EFCC operatives were set to summon the former Minister of Finance & Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Dr. Ngozi Okojo-Iweala and some top officials of the CBN to shed more light on what they know about the arms budget said to have been diverted by bigwigs of one of the political parties.
Also to be invited based on evidence of disbursement from the apex bank, are some serving and retired top officials of the CBN who helped in the disbursement of the arms cash to the beneficiaries.
Vanguard learnt that the decision to summon the former minister and the apex bank officials followed the discovery that the bank played an active part in wiring various sums of money to persons and institutions at home and abroad without paying attention to due process.
It was the gamut of transaction documents from the CBN that has assisted them to trace and arrest the high profile politicians and their cronies, who benefitted from the public funds meant for arms.
EFCCA source said: “It is clear from our discovery that some money taken from the Abacha loot was used to secure some arms and fight insurgency but it is also clear that a larger part of the money was diverted and nobody raised an eyebrow.
“We want these people to come and give us further clarifications on why they released the money and who got what and why.”
It was gathered that documents at the CBN have established that the $15 million cash which the office of the NSA ferried for the purchase of arms and was seized by the South African Government was part of the Abacha loot. The country is yet to refund the cash to Nigeria.
It was also learnt that part of the Abacha loot was used to secure the services of mercenaries and guerrillas from some countries to assist in re-taking 22 Nigerian territories in the North-East from Boko Haram.
The government at the time had engaged some of the foreign fighters to train troops in anti-terrorism warfare, intelligence gathering and counter terrorism which enabled them recover the lost territories from the insurgents. In spite of that, it never admitted using any of them for any of its operations.
Already, eight of the suspects have been charged with stealing, money laundering and breach of the Public Procurement Act, while none of them is yet to be released even on bail.
Okonjo-Iweala helped Jonathan loot stolen funds, Oshiomhole insists
However, Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State yesterday continued his verbal assault on former Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, as the governor alleged that the ex-minister only helped the past administration to loot funds.
Oshiomhole who was the guest speaker at a dialogue session that was co-organised by the National Human Rights Commission, NHRC, and the Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, in Abuja yesterday to commemorate the International Human Rights Day, urged President Muhammadu Buhari not to spare the former Minister who he branded “Ali Baba”.
The Edo State governor spoke on a topic entitled “Towards Advancing the Right to Social Security Protection in Nigeria”.
Speaking to journalists at the end of his presentation, Oshiomhole, maintained that Okonjo-Iweala has serious questions to answer with regards to what happened to looted funds that were recovered from former military dictator, General Sani Abacha.
He said it was not enough for the former minister to “sit there in Washington”, and say that she “transferred part of the money recovered from Abacha to Dasuki for security purpose”.
“All I am just saying is that we are in a constitutional democracy. We are not under an informal arrangement. When you listen to all the narratives, all the disclosures and defence, you will realise that the Federal Government needs to prosecute everybody, not to exempt anyone.
“For example I have read in the newspapers and online, the former Minister of Finance and the Coordinating Minister of the Economy saying that she transferred part of the money recovered from Abacha to Dasuki for security purposes.
“Now, the first question the media should ask is, even under conditions of war, money must be appropriated. The National Assembly, I recall very well, when Aminu Tambuwal was Speaker of the House of Representatives, they reconvened on Sunday in order to attend to an urgent matter submitted by the President. So, the Constitution is very clear.
“Money was looted and foreign countries helped us recover that money and a minister assisted in ensuring that that money is re-looted again. And she is there in Washington and you are here languishing. I am saying that she also must be brought to justice”, the Edo governor said.
Okonjo-Iweala should apologise to Nigerians—SERAP
Meanwhile, Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has asked former Minister of Finance Ngozi Okonjo Iweala to “apologise to Nigerians for claiming recently that recovered Abacha loot was transparently spent while she knew that $322m (about N63billion) recovered Abacha funds were inappropriately released to finance the fight against Boko Haram.”
SERAP’s statement yesterday followed Mrs Okonjo-Iweala’s statement that she released about $322m to the former National Security Adviser Sambo Dasuki for military operations.
In a statement by SERAP executive director Adetokunbo Mumuni the organisation said: “The truth about the spending of Abacha loot is now coming out, and it is clear that Mrs Okonjo-Iweala was wrong to accuse SERAP of bias while she knew that we are simply seeking truth, justice and accountability on the spending of recovered Abacha loot.”
“Mrs Okonjo-Iweala’s approach of ‘no answers, no apology’ on how Abacha loot was spent is doing her reputation more harm than good. We hope that she will take cue from the World Bank (her former employer) when it defined ‘accountability and probity’ as knowing what task has been set, accepting to do it, and going about it with a sense of probity. Probity implying the willingness to self-disclose such information to which a specific stakeholder group has a right as well as tolerance of the scrutiny of such a stakeholder group on information to which they have a right,” the organisation said.
It will be recalled that the former Minister of Finance, had on Wednesday, disclosed that she transferred $322m (N64.148bn) from the looted funds recovered from Abacha to the Office of the National Security Adviser, NSA, to aid military operations in the North-East.
I secured ex-President’s approval — Okonjo-Iweala
In a statement by her Media Adviser, Mr. Paul Nwabuikwu, Dr. Okonjo-Iweala, insisted that she secured the approval of ex-President Jonathan before the fund was transferred. She stressed that the approval followed the recommendation of a committee set-up by former President Jonathan to advise the administration on the way forward.
The ex-Minister explained that based on recommendation of the committee, she personally requested that part of the recovered funds be used for security operations while the rest be channelled to developmental purposes.
She said her decision to release the funds to the ONSA, was sequel to accusations that she was starving the military of funds to prosecute war on terrorism.
Okonjo-Iweala specifically accused Oshiomhole “and other powerful and corrupt interests”, of sponsoring a campaign of falsehood against her.
“To achieve their evil propaganda objective of tarnishing her name, these evil elements have distorted the contents of a memo, dated January 20, 2015, in which the former Minister of Finance, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, responded to a request by the former National Security Adviser, Col. Ibrahim Dasuki (retired), for funds to prosecute the terror war against Boko Haram.
“The central responsibility of the Minister of Finance is to find sources of funding for the financing of approved national priorities such as security, job creation and infrastructure.”
How Okonjo-Iweala diverted N61.4bn Abacha loot to NSA —Report
December 10, 2015
Nigerian Vanguard
LAGOS — The immediate past Minister of Finance, and Co-ordinating Minister for the Economy, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, was said to have illegally approved the transfer of at least N61.4 billion ($300 million and £5.5 million) from funds recovered from late dictator, Sani Abacha, to the Office of the National Security Adviser, Sambo Dasuki, few weeks to the 2015 presidential election, it was gathered, yesterday
According to a letter signed by Okonjo-Iweala, which was obtained by online medium, Premium Times, the former Finance minister signed off the transfer of the funds but requested then President Goodluck Jonathan to directly demand accountability from the then National Security Adviser, Col Sambo Dasuki.
In her immediate reaction, however, Okonjo-Iweala explained that only a part of the fund recovered from late Abacha was spent on arms and not the entire fund.
Dasuki, alongside the former governor of Sokoto State, Attahiru Bafarawa, and founder of DAAR Communications, owners of Africa Independent Television and Raypower radio network, Raymond Dokpesi, are being investigated for their roles in the disbursement of $2.1 billion and N643 billion meant for the procurement of arms to fight the raging insurgency in Nigeria’s north east region.
Okonjo-Iweala’s letter dated January 20, 2015, which was addressed to Jonathan, revealed that the money was transferred following a January 12, 2015 request by the Office of the NSA under Dasuki for funds for the procurement of arms and ammunition as well as intelligence equipment.
The letter read:“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 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).”
She added that the letter was to seek Mr Jonathan’s approval for the funds to be disbursed to the ONSA.
The former minister further explained that the money being transferred formed part of the Federal Government Independent Revenue.
My role in disbursement of the fund —Okonjo-Iweala
In her response yesterday, Okonjo-Iweala said attempt to link her name to any misuse of these funds for any purpose other than security as far as she understood it is totally false and cannot stand.
In a statement signed by her Media Adviser, Paul C Nwabuikwu, she explained her role in the disbursement of the fund.
According to her, “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.
“In fact, the ministry, on several occasions, had to call press conferences to provide details of budgetary spending on the military, to show, against the background of limited resources and other urgent national priorities, that it was doing its best on funding security.
“It was about this time that some new Abacha funds of about $322 million were returned with another $700 million still expected to be returned. (This is not to be confused with the Abacha funds returned in 2005-2006 under the Obasanjo government whose use for developmental purposes was monitored by the World Bank as earlier explained by Dr Okonjo-Iweala).
“Former President 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 $322 million for the military operations, while the expected $700 million 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.
“But, 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 developmental 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.”
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