Abacha looted fund: Mambilla Power, other projects that won’t benefit- Presidency

Presidency has listed the projects that won’t benefit from the recently returned Abacha loot.

Presidency clarified that the returned Sani Abacha loot will go towards three of the Federal Government’s five priority projects, not including the Mambilla power and East-West road projects.

Onyxnews Nigeria quoted National News Agency (NAN) saying, the President’s Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, made this clarification in a statement in Abuja on Wednesday.

The statement read in part: ”In an earlier statement, I had mistakenly noted that the Mambilla was one of five priority projects to benefit from the 311 million dollars Abacha loot under the Presidential Infrastructure Development Fund (PIDF) managed by the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA). That error is regretted.

”Although the Mambilla and East-West expressway are regarded under the PIDF as priority projects, I have ascertained that they are exempted from the agreement signed between the Nigerian, United States and British territory of Jersey governments.

”According to the document, only the second Niger bridge, Abuja-Kaduna-Kano expressway, and Lagos-Ibadan expressway will benefit from the repatriated funds. The funds are domiciled in the NSIA.”

The presidential aide, therefore, enjoined all print and online media to take note of the correction and make the necessary adjustments to their previous publications on the issue.

Meanwhile, according to different reports, the presidency has raised alarm concerning plenty of fake ‘Professor Ibrahim Gambaris’ that have come up on online, bearing the name of the new Chief of Staff to President Muhammadu Buhari few hours after his appointment.

The alarm was raised by the Special Assistant to the President on New Media, Bashir Ahmad via his micro- blogging site, Twitter.

He stated that many accounts have been opened on Twitter and other social media platforms with the name ‘Prof. Ibrahim Gambari’, ‘Professor Gambari Ibrahim’ and so on.

However, the Presidency informed Nigerians that the new Chief of Staff has no social media account.

It said Gambari, who was confirmed yesterday as the new Chief of Staff to President Buhari, is not on social media for now.

The alarm was raised by the Special Assistant to the President on New Media, Bashir Ahmad via his micro- blogging site, Twitter.