General Sani Abacha, the late military head of state, had Hamza Al-Mustapha as his chief security officer. He has denied claims that his former boss embezzled Nigerian funds and concealed them abroad.
In an interview with the BBC, he said that the funds were utilized to help Nigerians through difficult economic times.
He maintained that the funds, which were stored in a national account to promote Nigeria’s economic agenda, were not stolen.
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“The government was operating under a lot of hardship at that time,” he said. Money was nonexistent. In order to find out how they were surviving, we traveled to Libya with a few others. For eleven years, Libya had been subject to sanctions.
He clarified that the Abacha administration had implemented a program that permitted Nigerian-owned businesses to obtain government assistance in order to purchase items and resell them to citizens at reasonable prices after researching Libya’s system.
By God’s grace, we were able to avoid crushing Nigerians by copying these things. However, several people refused to return the money following Abacha’s passing. Rather, they spread a lot of untrue rumors about him.
“I don’t think Abacha’s name was associated with the money that was allegedly returned to Nigeria. To fund this economic strategy, the funds were retained in national accounts. “Some gave it back, while others concealed it,” he stated.
He raised more doubts about the claims by asking, “Did Abacha ever travel abroad? Was his signature on the money discovered? Or did someone witness him sending money? No.
In response to a question concerning Nigeria’s democracy, Al-Mustapha stated that while political advancements have been made, the lives of regular Nigerians have not improved.
“Democracy is good, but it’s a big problem when it’s used in a way that hurts the people,” he remarked.
