The African Network for Economic and Environment Justice (ANEEJ) has revealed that the $322.5million stolen funds from former Military Head of State Gen Sani Abacha between 2018-2022 has technically been exhausted .
Executive Director of ANEEJ, Rev. David Ugolor while briefing Journalists on Thursday in Abuja explained that the recovered loot was deployed to finance the $500million National Social Safety Net Program (NASSP) in the form of Conditional Cash Transfers to poor and vulnerable Nigerians.
Ugolor expressed concerns that when the federal government stopped disbursing the funds to the beneficiaries in 2021, four states which are Kebbi, Ondo, Edo and Enugu were excluded .
He said updates on the disbursement of the Conditional Cash Transfer showed that four states had been left out since 2019 due to technical reason
According to him, reprieve has eventually come for the beneficiaries of the National Cash Transfer programme in the affected states as N1.92billion was disbursed to 46,720 beneficiaries across 6 local government area of Kebbi state.
According to him, in Akure North, Ondo State, N120m was disbursed to 3673 beneficiaries across 6l local government areas, while payment eventually commenced at the Owo Development center on the 4th of May.
In Edo state, payment commenced on the 29th of April at Oredo LGA and a total of N360million was disbursed to 8705 beneficiaries. In Enugu, a total of N129.5 million was disbursed to 3,144 beneficiaries in 5LGAS.
Ugolor disclosed that in Edo, Kebbi and Ondo states beneficiaries were paid N40,000 covering backlogs of 8months January-August 2020 while beneficiaries in Enugu received N50,000 each, covering backlogs for 10 months from January-October 2020.
