…The funds from Ireland will be used for the budget set aside to cushion the effect of coronavirus pandemic on thee economy
The Minister of Justice and Equality in Ireland, Helen McEntee has said on Friday that Ireland has agreed with the Federal Government of Nigeria to return 5.5 million euros ($6.5 million).
The huge amount was the latest fraction of the retrieved looted money by the former military Head of State, Sani Abacha, as revealed in a statement by the Irish Justice Minister.
According to the corruption watchdog Transparency International, the total money stolen by the Nigeria’s former dictator was pegged at $5 billion between 1993 and 1998 of ruling the Africa’s biggest oil producer.
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“The return of these assets will be the first time that Ireland has taken such action and will be a concrete demonstration of Ireland’s commitment to international cooperation in the fight against corruption,” Helen McEntee, Ireland’s Minister for Justice and Equality, said in a statement.
The statement went further to disclose that Ireland froze the funds in October 2014 as part of foreign operation that seized more than $1 billion globally.
Nigeria in its bid to amass funds for the budget prepared to cushion the effect COVID-19 pandemic on the economy resorted to the agreement with the Ireland.
In May, over $300 million of Abacha loots have come from the United States and the British dependency of Jersey to Nigerian, despite an alarm raised around the world that it could be misappropriated.
