Facts emerged on Monday that the House of Representatives will on resumption for Tuesday plenary session commence debate on a bill which seeks to use the $322 million (or N101.26 billion) Abacha loot to fund the Ajaokuta Steel company, BusinessDay gathered authoritatively.
The bill is coming barely five days after the House passed a resolution urging President Muhammadu Buhari to halt ongoing plans to distribute the $322 million to 302,000 poor households in 19 states without database.
The bill for an “Act to allocate the returned looted Nigerian government fund of $322 million from Switzerland for funding of Ajaokuta Steel Company and Railway line(s) projects in Nigeria and for other related matters,” seen exclusively by our Correspondent, was sponsored by Ossai Nicholas Ossai and five other lawmakers.
They are: Mohammed Umar Bago, Rita Orji, Darlington Nwokocha, Alagbaso Jerry and Nwabuwa Henry Ndochukwu.
Clause 1 of the bill seen by our Correspondent, seeks to establish a fund to be known as ‘Swiss Fund’.
Clause 2 (i, ii & iii) provides that: “The Fund shall be all the returned looted Nigerian government money of $322.5 million from Switzerland; shall be allocated for the funding of Ajaokuta Steel company; shall also be allocated for the funding of Lagos-Port Harcourt – Enugu – Ajaokuta railway lines projects.”
The explanatory memorandum of the bill further stipulates that the “bill seeks to ensure that returned looted Nigerian government funds are used for major infrastructural projects that will enhance economic growth and development in Nigeria.”
There has been public outcry over the plans by Federal Government to embark on sharing of the $322 million to a cross section of Nigerians described as ‘poor’ without any substantive evidence of their status, adding that such disbursement may create pipeline for corrupt practices.
Some professional bodies in the housing sector and civil society organisations had called on the Buhari’s administration to halt the plans to share the $322 million to the poor but rather roll out modalities to channel the fund into more productive sector which has the potential of adding value to the nation’s economy.
Recall that the House had during last Wednesday plenary passed a resolution to set up an Ad-hoc Committee that will investigate repatriated Abacha loot from 1998 till date, and mandated that the Ad-hoc Committee should report back within six weeks for further legislative action.
Recall that Eric Mayoraz, Switzerland Ambassador to Nigeria, had during a roundtable on assets recovery organized by the Swizz Embassy in Abuja, noted that total sum of $722 million of the Abacha family money hidden in Switzerland has been fully repatriated in 2005.
Mayoraz was quoted as saying that additional sum of $322 million which was frozen by the Swizz Attorney-General, was repatriated in December, 2017.
The lawmakers, who spoke during the debate on the motion sponsored by Sunday Karimi (PDP-Kogi), noted that the idea of sharing to the money to the poor was uncalled for with lack of database and effective modalities for the proposed sharing.
The lawmakers also argued that move by Buhari to share the recovered loot was in breach of section 12(1) of the 1999 constitution (as amended) which provides that the treaties and agreements reaches by Federal Government must be ratified by the National Assembly.
