Niger Delta rights activist, Ozobo Austin, has called on President Bola Tinubu to appropriate the $150m Gen. Sani Abacha loot to boost critical infrastructures in the Niger Delta region, saying “the money is part of the Niger Delta oil funds being stolen by Abacha.”
Ozobo, in a statement on Wednesday, maintained that “no region but the Niger Delta should benefit from the money, and it would amount to injustice for the Nigerian government not to appropriate the funds for the development of the Niger Delta region.”
He argued that “It would be a wrong argument for anybody to lay false claims that the money belongs to the Nigerian government because the money was sourced from Niger Delta crude oil sales.
During the Abacha regime, oil was the sole source of revenue in Nigeria, and the oil deposits were sourced only from the Niger Delta region, hence, it is correct to say the money is Niger Delta money and not the Nigerian government’s money.”
The French government, on Friday, announced its decision to return $150m Abacha loot to Nigeria.
The visiting French Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs, Catherine Colonna, who disclosed this in Abuja, said she had informed President Tinubu about the planned return of the seized fund.