Abubakar Malami, the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, has stated that the present administration has recovered approximately $1 billion in stolen funds.
Malami announced this at a briefing with State House Correspondents following President Buhari’s weekly FEC meeting at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.
The Attorney General also said that Council had adopted a new Anti-corruption Strategy Document to bolster anti-graft campaigns.
He said that the money and property that had been recovered had been invested in areas like healthcare and poverty reduction.
Concerning examples of budget padding, Malami said the administration would take “all necessary measures” to address the problem.
Hajiya Sadiya Umar Farouq, minister of humanitarian affairs, disaster management, and social development, had accused Zainab Ahmed, the Minister of Finance, Budget, and National Planning, of adding N206bn to the budget of the ministry.
While defending the 2023 budget before the Senate Committee on Special Duties on Monday, Farouq said that the ministry had requested some projects for the North East Development Commission and the National Social Safety Net Project in the 2022 budget that were not released but that it was surprising to see an inflated amount in the 2023 budget of the ministry.
Maj. Gen. Bashir Magashi (rtd.), the Minister of Defense, told the Senate that Ahmed had added N11 billion to his ministry’s 2023 budget.