According to a report by The Cable, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has asked the federal government to publish names of the beneficiaries of the repatriated $322m (approximately N116bn) loot stashed in Swiss banks by Sani Abacha, the late military dictator.
The federal government had said the money would be shared among the poor households in the country
But in a statement Kola Ologbondiyan, national publicity secretary of the PDP, said it had become necessary for the list to be published following allegations that the repatriated fund was being abused.
TheCable had reported how the office of Abubakar Malami, attorney-general of the federation, reengaged two lawyers to “help” with the repatriation of money stolen by Abacha.
The lawyers were to be paid $17 million (over N6 billion) for their services, an amount nearly thrice more than what was already paid to Swiss lawyer, Enrico Monfrini, for the same job which he was yet to complete before Nigeria mysteriously decided to engage another set of lawyers.
Malami suddenly appointed Oladipo Okpeseyi, a senior advocate, and Temitope Isaac Adebayo, in 2016 apparently to duplicate the job of the Swiss lawyer.
Incidentally, Okpeseyi and Adebayo were lawyers to the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), the legacy party of Buhari. Malami was legal adviser to the party.
TheCable has reported how Malami has been frustrating an investigation on the matter by the house of representatives.
Ologbondiyan accused the ruling party of trying to sweep the matter under the carpet, wondering why the government had not acted since the report was published.
He also challenged Buhari to order Malami to reveal the owners of the consulting firm that was reportedly paid billions of naira to “share” the fund.
Ologbondiyan said the process did not pass through the constitutionally required approval of the national assembly.
“President Buhari needs to note that Nigerians are utterly dismayed that having hitherto postured as a man of integrity, he has taken no steps against this bare-faced atrocity where over 90 percent of supposed beneficiaries of the repatriated fund are phony names supplied by fraudulent officials of his government,” the statement read.
“Nigerians are completely at a loss on why President Buhari always fail to take bold steps to expose and deal with corrupt and sharp practices by his appointees and leaders of his APC, even when such nefarious acts are directly against the less-privileged citizens already suffering the harsh economic realities of his administration.
“Since this issue was raised and the PDP called for a legislative scrutiny, the federal government and the APC have kept mum, perhaps, thinking that by their silence, it will be swept under the carpet like others in the past.”
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