FG to give Abacha's looted funds to poorest Nigerians

The Federal Government will begin drawing money from the $321m loot repatriated to Nigeria from Switzerland next month. 
The fund which was part of the money stolen by the late military dictator, Gen. Sani Abacha, will be used to fund the Social Investment Programme of the government. The Special Adviser to the President on Social Investment, Mrs. Maryam Uwais said this on Thursday at a forum on asset recovery organised by the Swiss Embassy in collaboration with the African Network for Environment and Economic Justice .

Uwais who was represented by the Manager , Legal , National Social Investment Office, Ms. Linda Ekeator explained that one of the conditions for returning the Abacha loot was that the spending would be monitored by the World Bank. She said the Federal Government and the World Bank subsequently signed an agreement to use the money to fund the Social Investment Programme , which would among other things , give money to the poorest and most vulnerable households .

Ekeator said “The cash transfer office has been making transfers not from the Abacha loot but from some other sources. The World Bank funding will commence with the Abacha loot funding in July. The payments that have been going on before now have been through budgetary provisions.”