…says ‘money he kept for Nigeria vanished after his death’
. Denies Abacha played a role in June 12 annulment
Former First Lady, Maryam Abacha, has denied long-standing allegations that her late husband, General Sani Abacha, looted Nigeria’s treasury.
Abacha was Nigeria’s military head of state and commander-in-chief of the armed forces from 1993 to 1998.
He died on June 8, 1998.
But the former first lady in an interview on TVC on Sunday to mark 27 years since the death of Abacha, maintained that the funds were not looted by her late husband.
Rather, she stressed that the former military ruler’s financial dealings were deliberately misrepresented.
For many years since his death, successive Nigerian governments have recovered hundreds of millions of dollars stashed in foreign accounts, which they widely refer to as “Abacha loot.”
These funds, repatriated from countries including Switzerland, the United States, and the United Kingdom, have been channeled into funding various social investment programmes.
Maryam Abacha, during the interview, challenged those making the claims of recovering “Abacha loots” to present credible evidence.
She said, “Who is the witness of the monies that were being stashed?.
“Did you see the signature or the evidence of any monies stashed abroad? And the monies that my husband kept for Nigeria, in a few months, the monies vanished. People are not talking about that.”
The former first lady argued that the constant finger-pointing at her husband reflects a deeper societal issue.
She said, “Why are you blaming somebody? Is that tribalism or a religious problem or what is the problem with Nigerians?
“I pray for Nigerians. I pray for all of us. I pray that we should have goodness in our hearts. We should stop telling lies and blaming people.
“Why are we so bad towards each other? Because somebody is a northerner or a southerner, somebody is a Muslim or a Christian, or somebody is nice or… It’s not fair.”
Maryam Abacha lambasted Nigerians for believing that successive administrations in Nigeria recovered monies stashed by Abacha abroad.
She said, “And because Nigerians are fools, they listen to everything.
“Babangida doesn’t make Nigeria alone. Abacha does not make Nigeria alone. Abiola and everybody, nobody is big enough for Nigeria. We are all very important.
“Even the single man on the street is very important. We are all human beings, for goodness sake. All these wahala should stop. Babangida cannot make things or unmake things.”
She also denied claims that forces led by General Abacha annulled the June 12 election under military president Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida.
She stressed, “All I know is that the annulment was not done by my husband.
“If it was him, that means he was very powerful… even more powerful than the president. If the president was there and somebody else was calling the shots, that means Abacha was the greatest.”
