Abacha Didn’t Loot Nigeria, He Safeguarded the Money – Al Mustapha Defends Late Leader

The claims that his former employer embezzled Nigerian funds and concealed them abroad have been denied by Hamza Al-Mustapha, the former Chief Security Officer of the late military Head of State, General Sani Abacha.
He said that the funds in question were utilized to help Nigerians through difficult economic times in an interview with the BBC.
He maintained that the funds were not pilfered but rather were held in a national account to fund Nigeria’s economic strategy.

“At that time, the government was operating under a lot of hardship,” he said. No money was present. So, along with a few others, we traveled to Libya to find out how they were coping. Libya had been subject to sanctions for eleven years.
He clarified that after researching Libya’s system, the Abacha administration implemented a program that let Nigerian-owned businesses to obtain government funding in order to purchase commodities and resell them to the populace at reasonable costs.

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By God’s favor, Nigerians were spared throughout the copying of these materials. Abacha’s death, however, caused some people to refuse to return the money. Instead, they made up a lot of untrue things about him.

“The money that they claim was sent back to Nigeria wasn’t in Abacha’s name, in my opinion. In order to sustain this economic plan, the funds were retained in national accounts. He stated, “Some gave it back, while others concealed it.”

Further challenging the accusations, he said, “Did Abacha ever travel abroad? Did he sign the money that was discovered? Or was he caught moving funds? “No.”

Al-Mustapha responded that while there has been political advancement in Nigeria, the lives of average Nigerians have not changed when questioned about the country’s democracy.

According to him, “democracy is good, but it’s a big problem when it’s used in a way that harms the people.”