The Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun has described as malicious and misleading media reports about a purported ‘strong-worded’ letter to President Buhari on alleged non-payment of legal fees to lawyers who assisted in the recovery of funds allegedly looted by the late Military Head of State, Sani Abacha.
The refuttal is contained in a statement by the Special Adviser, Media & Communications, Oluyinka Akintunde and issued to news men on Tuesday.
According to it, “The attention of the Honourable Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, has been drawn to false media reports of a “strongly-worded letter to the President” objecting to the payment of $16.9 million fees to two lawyers for the recovery of Abacha funds.
“The Minister wishes to dissociate herself and the Federal Ministry of Finance from recent malicious and misleading media reports on the Abacha refunds. The Minister had at no time written any letter to the President or any member of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) on the payment of lawyers for the Abacha recovery.
“She also refuted the flawed media reports of controversy surrounding the Abacha recovery, disclosing that the sum of US$322,515,931.83 was received into a Special Account in the Central Bank of Nigeria on December 18, 2017 from the Swiss Government,” the statement read.
It added that there was no controversy with regards to Abacha funds.
“For the avoidance of doubt, there is no controversy concerning the recovery of the Abacha monies from the Swiss Government,” the statement said.
