The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) group has asked ex minister of Finance under the Jonathan administration, Mrs Ngozi Okonjo Iweala, to apologise to Nigerians for claiming recently that the recovered Abacha loot was transparently spent, when the same money was actually transferred to former National Security Adviser (NSA), Sambo Dasuki, for alleged arms purchase.
SERAP insisted in a statement yesterday, that Okonjo-Iweala knew that $322 million (about N63 billion) recovered Abacha funds were inappropriately released to finance the fight against Boko Haram.
SERAP’s statement followed Okonjo-Iweala’s confession that she released about $322 million to Dasuki for military operations.
“The truth about the spending of Abacha loot is now coming out, and it is clear that Okonjo-Iweala was wrong to accuse SERAP of bias while she knew we are simply seeking truth, justice and accountability on the spending of recovered Abacha loot.
“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…,” Executive Director of SERAP, Adetokunbo Mumuni, stated.
“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 organization stated.
“We, therefore, urge her to now come out for the sake of millions of Nigerians living in extreme poverty and also of generations yet unborn and tell Nigerians the whole story about what exactly happened to recovered Abacha loot, as well as publicly apologise for claiming that Abacha loot was transparently spent. She should be willing to be held to account.”