Kemi Adeosun, the minister of finance, has come under intense pressure to deny blocking the dubious payment of $16.5 million to Nigerian lawyers over the recovery of Abacha Loot, sources in her office have told TheCable.
“There have been calls from all over the country putting her under pressure and suggesting that she is fighting the president,” an aide to the minister told TheCable on Tuesday morning.
He said the office will issue a statement to deny the story.
However, TheCable had a private WhatsApp message exchange with Adeosun before publishing the story.
She confirmed not approving the payment and sending the request back to the ministry of justice.
The management of TheCable has decided to make the screenshot of the conversation public “if it has to come to that”.
TheCable had confirmed that the recovered Abacha loot had been repatriated to Nigeria by the Swiss government following the execution of the memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the two countries for the judicious use of the recovery.
However, Abubakar Malami, the minister of justice and attorney-general of the federation, had curiously engaged the services of another set of lawyers in 2016 for a fee of about N6 billion — despite full payment having been made to Enrico Monfrini, the Swiss lawyer that handled the recovery.
All that was left was for a government-to-government communication for the repatriation of the money to Nigeria.
Malami’s request to Adeosun was returned to him following allegations of duplication of payments as reported by The reporter
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