The House, following a motion moved by a member from Kogi State, Mr Sunday Karimi, resolved to “set up an ad hoc committee to investigate the total Abacha loot recovered from 1998 till date; establish the sources and how the money was utilised.”
Chairman, House Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Abdulrazak Namdas, confirmed the panel’s work.
He explained that the Speaker, Yakubu Dogara, set up the commitee “so that we can for once, bring all the speculation about the Abacha loot to rest.”
Namdas told Punch: “The House wants to look into this Abacha loot issue thoroughly and lay the matter to rest. The mandate of the committee is to establish how much was recovered as Abacha loot.
“We have been hearing of loot recovery; how much is the total recovered by all the administrations since 1998?
“Also, what were the sources of the recovery? Was any part or all of the loot spent? What was it spent on and what is the total balance?” he added.
The Nigerian government, last week, explained that the loot would be disbursed to beneficiaries of the direct cash transfer programme.
