U.S Ambassador to Nigeria, Mary Beth Leonard and Minister of Justice Abubakar Malami signing the agreement: Photo Ifeoma Nwovu
Nigeria and the United States have reached an agreement to repatriate over $23 million of the Abacha loot.
The agreement was signed on Tuesday in the office of the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, Mr Abubakar Malami.
Mr Malami signed on behalf of the Nigerian government while the U.S Ambassador to Nigeria, Mary Beth Leonard signed on the behalf of the U.S government.
”The fund when returned will be invested in three ongoing projects by the Federal Government, including the Abuja-Kaduna road and the 2nd Niger Bridge”, Malami has said.
Nigeria has in the past recovered several other tranches of the Abacha loot, which are proceeds believed to have been diverted from public coffers by the military administration of General Sani Abacha in the 1990s.
In May 2020, $308m held in the Channel Island of Jersey, were sent to Nigeria.
It brought the total returned Abacha loot to $1.5bn.
Writing Hadiza Abdulrahman; editing by Annabel Nwachukwu