FG plans to spend funds recovered from Diezani & Yakubu to feed poor Nigerians

The Federal Government is set to invest some of the recently recovered funds on its social intervention programmes.



A top government official told newsmen on Saturday that the $9m recovered from a former Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, Andrew Yakubu and the $153m forfeited by a former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke, would be immediately used to fund the welfare scheme for the poor.

The official, who wished to remain anonymous, said the money would be used in paying the N30,000 monthly stipend to beneficiaries of the N-Power scheme, the job creation programme of the President Muhammadu Buhari administration; as well as the school feeding programme.

He said, “The National Economic Forum has been meeting and we are looking at the idea of investing the recovered funds on the social intervention programme which will gulp hundreds of billions of naira.”

The Federal Government is also on a mission to recover at least N399bn and $6.62bn in cash and assets from the high profile cases being prosecuted across the country.

Documents made available to journalists from the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption showed that at least 45 high-profile corruption cases had been taken to court.

The cases stated in the document exclude the $153m recently forfeited to the Federal Government by Alison-Madueke; the $9m case involving Yakubu; the prosecution of a former Director-General of the National Broadcasting Commission, Emeka Mba (N2.8bn); as well as all retired military officials (N40bn).

Some of the high-profile cases stated in the document include an alleged N36bn case involving a former Governor of Jigawa State, Saminu Turaki; a fraud case involving a former Governor of Gombe State, Senator Danjuma Goje (N25bn), and a former Governor of Nasarawa State, Aliyu Doma.

Other prominent cases listed include the Chairman of Atlantic Energy Brass Development Limited and Atlantic Energy Drilling Concept Limited, Jide Omokore, who is standing trial for an alleged $1.6bn fraud; a former Director-General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, Patrick Akpobolokemi, who is standing trial before two different courts for alleged N1.6bn fraud and N754.7bn fraud.

The committee also listed the case of the President, NLNG Staff Bonny Co-op Investment and Credit Society Limited, Julius Peters, who is being tried for an alleged N207bn fraud.

The committee defined high-profile cases as cases in which any of the suspects is “a politician, public officer or judicial officer; a person elected or nominated to a public office or position and where the subject matter of the case involves government property or funds.”