Nigerian elder statesman, Buba Galadima, has said the late military dictator, Sani Abacha, did not loot the country treasury as being widely claimed.

WuzupNigeria reports that Abacha ruled Nigeria from 1993 until his death in 1998. Since his death, hundreds of millions of dollars have been discovered stashed by him in different countries all over the world.

Two weeks ago the United States of America and the Bailiwick of Jersey repatriated $311m Abacha loot to the country.

WuzupNigeria further reported that about $5bn of Nigerian funds looted by Abacha were recovered between 1999 and 2015.

Now, Galadima, who is the spokesman for the Peoples Democratic Party [PDP], says Abacha was advised to move the money abroad over an impending US sanctions then.

The 72-year-old said,

“Saddam Hussein was one of them. Muammar Gaddafi was one of them. They advised him that there was the likelihood that the US could sanction Nigeria and as such he should save money outside that could last the country, at least, six months, even Nigeria’s account was blocked by the US, there won’t be panic,” Galadima said in a The Guardian interview.

“I was a key figure in that government. I was one of the so-called Abacha boys if you must know. I was the Director-General, National Maritime Authority, whereby export and import to Nigeria, including crude, were directly coming under my desk. So, am in a position to talk about Abacha and the so-called loot.

“Now regarding the repatriation of the money, I fault the government in two areas about the action taken so far. At a point, one of the spokespeople of the government said they were going to use the money for palliative. At another time, the Attorney-General has come to say that the monies are going to be used for the construction of Abuja-Kano road, 2nd Niger Bridge and the Ibadan Lagos expressway. That is double-speak. And they should know, no matter who speaks for the government, Nigerians do not trust this government. Besides, whatever they want to use the money for, they have no power, under the Nigerian Constitution, to just spend the money without proper appropriation by the National Assembly. Whatever they want to do, they have to go to the National Assembly, for the proposal to be scrutinized by the entire country as represented by the members of the National Assembly and they get approval.

“The government is not Alpha and Omega to determine any expenditure. It is the sole prerogative of the National Assembly to determine how money is to be spent. Whatever they want to do with the money, let them know that it would be unconstitutional to sit in their offices and allocate money to their friends and say they are distributing palliatives. Unless the National Assembly appropriates, they should know that they are breaching the law and it is an impeachable offence for the president.”

The politician said the ignorance of Nigerians describing Abacha as a monster cannot be faulted, saying:

“Yes of course. It is based on ignorance. But the truth of the matter is that we are running a constitutional government called democracy. People can hold different opinion provided it does not encroach on another’s liberty. What I have said to you now is my own opinion based on what I knew of the government and the man at that time.

“I am pretty sure that if the late Professor Sam Aluko was alive, the genius who wrote Abacha economic policy; he ran perfectly the Abacha economic policy; Aluko was a man of intelligence and integrity, he managed the economy well at that time that naira was going for 9/11 dollars. Credit must be given to him.

“The crude is selling for 20 dollars per barrel and everybody is crying and that is because there was no good economic plan in place. Aluko acknowledged the presence of these monies before he passed on. If they say Abacha was a monster, my answer is, at least he held the country together and everybody knew you could not trample on our laws without being dealt with.”