Shock As Nigeria’s Attorney General, Budget Office Give Contradictory Figures On Looted funds

According to report by Premium Time,Two top officials of the federal government have provided contradictory figures on the looted funds already recovered by the federal government. The Muhammadu Buhari administration has made the recovery of looted funds, as well as prosecution of culprits, one of the focus of its anti-corruption war.

While the Director General of the Budget Office, Ben Akabueze, said in December that N72 billion had already been recovered, the Attorney-General of the Federation said on Thursday that N15 billion and $10.5 million (about N3.2 billion), making a total of N18.2 billion, had so far been recovered.

The difference between the two provided figures is over N50 billion and the larger sum was first stated, removing any possibility that the latter figure was an update on the earlier one.

It is possible that the figure provided by the attorney general represents only that of the justice ministry while that of the budget office represents that of the others, or of all ministries, departments and agencies; but that distinction was not made by the officials.

Mr. Akabueze made his disclosure while answering questions at the public presentation of the 2017 budget proposals at the State House, Abuja, on December 19.He said N72 billion of the money had already been recovered, and the targeted N258 billion would be used to partly fund the 2017 budget, the News Agency of Nigeria reported.

“We are projecting N258.6 billion looted funds to be part of the revenue to finance 2017 budget,” Mr. Akabueze said.

“Also to be included in budget financing is $320 million, which is N97.6 billion recovered Abacha loots expected from the Swiss government.

“The balance of N90 billion will be from other expected recovery loots which are now at advance stages,’’ he said.

On Thursday, Mr. Malami disclosed his figure in Abuja when the Senate Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters visited the ministry on its oversight function to appraise the 2016 budget performance of the ministry.

“Let me put it on record that the Federal Ministry of Justice has equally significantly recorded success in the recovery drive as it relates to the looted funds,” he was quoted as saying by the News Agency of Nigeria.

“In that regard and direction, over N15 billion has been recovered by the ministry and $10.5 million was equally recovered in that direction,” Mr. Malami said.

None of the two federal officials provided a detailed breakdown of the looted funds including from whom and when.