The Federal Government Thursday, kick started the processes of investing the “Abacha III” loot worth $311,797,866.11 in three critical infrastructure projects with formal receipt of technical bids from 17 organizations.
The Head of Assets Recovery and Management, Office of the Attorney General of the Federation in the Ministry of Justice, Ladidi Bara’Atu Mohammed presided over the receipts of submissions of the technical bids documents from the various organizations. The technical bids submissions took place in the Ministry of Justice, Abuja.
While speaking, she recalled that as part of the agreements prior to the release and repatriation of the “Abacha III” loot, it was agreed that the fund would be judiciously invested in three critical infrastructure projects in Nigeria and that the processes of managing executing the projects would be transparently done.
Saying that the $311,797,866.11 of the “Abacha III” was repatriated from the United States and the Bailiwick of Jersey after such agreements were reached, she disclosed the processes for the bids and outcome would also be forwarded to the governments of the two countries for review.
It would be recalled that the amount increased significantly from over $308 million mentioned in the press release issued in February, 2020 to over $311million because of the interest that accrued from 3rd February, 2020 to 28th April, 2020 when the fund was transferred to the Central Bank of Nigeria.
Bara’Atu Mohammed further disclosed that the litigation process for the return of these assets titled “Abacha III” commenced in 2014 while the diplomatic process culminated into the signing of the Asset Return Agreement on 3rd February, 2020 by the Governments of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, United States of America and the Bailiwick of Jersey commenced in 2018.
The Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, had on receipt of the loot said, “This Agreement is based on international law and cooperation measures that sets out the procedures for the repatriation, transfer, disposition and management of the assets.
“The government of Nigeria has committed that the assets will support and assist in expediting the construction of three major infrastructure projects across Nigeria, namely: The Lagos – Ibadan Expressway, Abuja – Kano Road, and
The Second Niger Bridge.
It may be recalled that the recovered funds were laundered through the U.S. banking system and then held in bank accounts in the Bailiwick of Jersey.
He said to ensure transparent management of the returned assets, the Nigerian government will also engage a Civil Society Organisation, who has combined expertise in substantial infrastructure projects, civil engineering, anti-corruption compliance, anti-human trafficking compliance, and procurement to provide additional monitoring and oversight.
The technical bid opening for the submissions of technical bid documents was coordinated by a five-man delegation from the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) led by the Director, Civil Infrastructure, Nasir Bello.
Mr. Bello revealed that out of 18 organizations which submitted their technical bid documents, 17 beat the deadline for submissions which was 12 noon Thursday, 28 May, 2020; while one organisation, Lonadek Nigeria Limited failed to meet the deadline with their submission which arrived 12.38 pm Thursday, 28 May, 2020.
Also, while 12 organizations submitted hard copies of their technical bids documents, five organizations submitted soft copies via email without any hard copy.
He explained that Lonadek’s submission/document would be returned to them as they were disqualified for failing to meet the timeframe for submissions.
He said the submissions of the 17 pre-qualified organizations would be reviewed by a technical committee which would communicated to the respective organizations on whether they were qualified to proceed or not to the next stage of the biding process which is submissions of financial bid.
The 17 pre-qualified organizations for the technical bids are : TRIUMPH OIL and Gas NlG. LTD, INTERNATIONAL ACTION CENTRE, GPM ASSOCIATES , PHENAI PENAL consults LTD/AFRICA IN Foundation INFRASTRUCTURE, CLEEN FOUNDATION, OLOTU LEKAN F. & co., ANTI-CORRUPTION AND RESEARCH BASED DATA INITIATIVE, PUBLIC AND PRIVATE DEVELOPMENT CENTRE (PPDC), AREWA COMMUNITY AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT NETWORK IN NIGERIA, QUADRANTE, IBLF GLOBAL, PPP ADVISORIES CONSORTIUM, RESTITUTION IMPACT LIMITED, URBAN PROJECT PROSPECTS INTEGRATE SERVICES LTD, CENTRE FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE, FOUNDATION FOR PUBLIC PRIVATE PARTNERSHIPS NIGERIA (FPPPN)
and GLOBAL SOCEITY FOR ANTI-CORRUPTION.
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