Abacha loots: Adeosun debunks $16.9m payment to lawyers

The Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, has debunked what she considered false reports of a “strongly-worded letter to the President” objecting the payment of $16.9 million fees to two lawyers for the recovery of Abacha funds.

The Minister, in a statement on Tuesday in Abuja, “dissociated herself and the Federal Ministry of Finance from the malicious and misleading media reports on the Abacha refunds.”

“The Minister had at no time written any letter to the President or any member of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) on the payment of lawyers for the Abacha recovery,” Adeosun declared.

She also refuted the flawed media reports of controversy surrounding the Abacha recovery, disclosing that the sum of US$322,515,931.83 was received into a Special Account in the Central Bank of Nigeria on December 18, 2017 from the Swiss Government.

“For the avoidance of doubt, there is no controversy concerning the recovery of the Abacha monies from the Swiss Government,” she declared.