The second Niger Bridge, the Lagos-Ibadan and Abuja-Kaduna-Kano expressway were among the projecta that will gulp the $311m US Dollars returned to the country
On Monday, May 4, 2020, some $311 million US Dollars – stolen from the citizens of Nigeria during the Abacha regime – were safely returned to our country from the United States.
According to a statement signed by Garba Shehu Senior Special Assistant to the President on media and publicity the funds will be used in full, for vital and decades-overdue infrastructure development: The second Niger Bridge, the Lagos-Ibadan and Abuja-Kaduna-Kano expressways – creating tens of thousands of Nigerian construction jobs and local skills, which can then be useful in future projects.
“Part of the funds will also be invested in the Mambilla Power Project which, when completed, will provide electricity to some three million homes – over ten million citizens – in our country.”
According to shehu, the receipt of these stolen monies – and the hundreds of millions more that have already been returned from the United Kingdom and Switzerland – are an opportunity for the development of our nation, made far harder for those decades the country was robbed of these funds.
Indeed, previous monies returned last year from Switzerland – some $320 million US dollars – are already being used for the government’s free school feeding scheme, a stipend for millions of disadvantaged citizens, and grain grants for those in severe food hardship.
Without these funds, the fight against Covid-19 would be even tougher.
The latest return is a testament to the growing and deepening relationship between the government of Nigeria and the government of the United States.
Without the cooperation both from the UK Government, the US Executive branch and US Congress, we would not have achieved the return of these funds at all
