The National Co-ordinator, Ijaw Monitoring Group, IMG, Comrade Joseph Evah, has revealed that the money, late General Sani Abacha stole during his rule as Nigeria President, belongs to the people of Niger Delta.
This is even as he vowed to petition President Muhammadu led APC government to United Nations, UN, if the money was not given to the people.
Evah, stated this in an interview with The Sun, he advised Federal Government to shelve the proposed idea of sharing the sum of $528 million looted fund otherwise known as ‘Abacha’s loot’ recently repatriated from Switzerland among poor Nigerians.
According to him, “the Niger-Deltapeople are not opposed to sharing money for the poor but we are surprised that President Muhammadu Buhari without consulting us decided on that line of action.
He further added that the “so-called recovered loot belongs to the Niger-Delta”.
“The money is from oil. We want President Buhari to tell us and other Nigerians that the money belongs to the Niger-Delta people and then we people of the Niger-Delta will now decide how the money will be shared”.
“It is unfortunate that President Buhari without consulting the Niger-Delta people is now telling us how this money will be shared. It is not that Niger-Delta people are opposed to sharing anything with other Nigerians, after all, we have been sharing the oil money with other Nigerians over the years. And this one also, the so-called recovered loot, we are prepared to share it with other Nigerians. But we need to be consulted. Without that, the Niger-Delta people can’t allow the money to be shared like that.
“We are going to protest, and petition the United Nations, and the International Community if President Buhari go ahead and share the money without consulting us. We will appeal to the United Nations to help us tell Buhari that this is democracy. He can’t do whatever he likes the over recovered so-called Abacha loot.
Evah noted that only the Niger-Delta people should decide the sharing formula over the so-called recovered Abacha loot.
He said; “Anything short of that is not acceptable to us. Then, another thing again is that calling that money Abacha loot is not acceptable to the people of Niger-Delta. The Federal Government should not call money recovered Abacha loot.
Giving more insight over the recovered money, Evah said the money was not Abacha’s loot.
According to him; “That money was stolen by some people. President Buhari should first order an investigation into the real source of the money. The EFCC, and FBI can help to trace the source of the money and the people who took the money out of Nigeria. I don’t believe that money was looted by Abacha.
“It is because Abacha is dead that they are lying against the man. It is General Abdusalam Abubakar, and former President Olusegun Obasanjo that conspired against Abacha. They are enemies of Abacha–they are extending their enmity to Abacha to the grave.
“I petitioned Oputa Panel over this money or what they are calling Abacha loot. But the Oputa Panel refused to listen to me. The panel refused to entertain my petition.
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