THE Federal Government has not entered in to any agreement to concede any amount of money from over $300 million to be repatriated to Nigeria from Island of New Jessy, to any individual, the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Abubakar Malami, SAN, has said.
The AGF, in a statement on Wednesday, said he made the clarification during an interview session he had with the Voice of Nigeria and Deutsche Welle on Tuesday.
According to the statement that was signed by his media aide, Dr. Umar Gwandu, Malami, during the interview, stated that FG was exclusively bound by the tripartite agreement entered into and signed by the Federal Government of Nigeria, United State of America and Island of Jessy for the repatriation of over $300 million funds referred to as Abacha III.
He added that no individual was named to be a beneficiary of any amount in the tripartite agreement.
“Malami said the international community has developed confidence in the present administration in view of the fact that looted funds recovered by the President Muhammadu Buhari’s led administration, before now, were judiciously utilized for high-impact public oriented projects.
“He said in the document of the agreement, it was clearly spelt out that the monies will be utilized in the Abuja-Kano and Lagos – Ibadan Express ways as well as the 2nd Niger Bridge only and the insinuation of third-party beneficiary outside the scope of the agreement is, therefore, baseless and unfounded.
“The Minister said Nigeria has no reputational issue over enforcement of agreements and treaties and it is, therefore, an impossibility and unimaginable for Nigeria to hand over some amount of money to a third party not expressly mentioned in the agreement after the three countries concerned signed an agreement on what to do with the repatriated funds.