Mambilla power, East-West Road won’t benefit from repatriated Abacha loot as earlier stated, Presidency retracts

The Presidency said on Wednesday the East-West Road and the Mambilla Power Projects were not part of the Federal Government’s priority projects that would benefit from the returned $311 million retrieved from the family of the late dictator, Gen. Sani Abacha.

The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, who disclosed this in a statement titled, “Three out of five FG priority projects to draw from Abacha loot,” in Abuja, said the two projects were not in the agreement signed between the Nigerian, United States and British territory of Jersey governments.

The statement read: “The recently repatriated Sani Abacha loot will go towards three of the Federal Government’s five priority projects, excluding the Mambilla power and East-West road projects.

“In an earlier statement, I had mistakenly noted that the Mambilla was one of five priority projects to benefit from the $311 million Abacha loot under the Presidential Infrastructure Development Fund (PIDF) managed by the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA). That error is regretted.

“Although the Mambilla and East-West expressway are regarded under the PIDF as priority projects, I have ascertained that they are exempted from the agreement signed between the Nigerian, United States and the British territory of Jersey governments.

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“According to the document, only the second Niger Bridge, Abuja-Kaduna-Kano expressway, and Lagos-Ibadan expressway will benefit from the repatriated funds. The funds are domiciled in the NSIA.”

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