The former Minister of Finance and Economy Dr Okonjo Iweala said yesterday that she gave former NSA Col Sambo Dasuki a sum of $322m from Abacha loot that was repartriated to prosecute the fight against Boko haram,she claimed the Money was a loan.
In a statement through her Media Adviser Paul Nwabuikwu,she 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.”
She noted that base on 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.”
Iweala Making reference to the Dasuki's 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 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.
The office of the Finance Minister was heavily criticized in 2014 for not doing enough in fund provision in fighting boko haram,most blame directed to mrs Iweala who controls the Ministry.
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