A former APC chieftain and ally of the late dictator and former military head of state, Buba Galadima has vindicated the late fmr head of state, Gen Sani Abacha of looting any funds belonging to the country.

According to the former APC chieftain, Galadima said contrary to what is obtainable across the media, Abacha instead, saved the money abroad ahead of an impending sanction by the US government.
Galadima added that Abacha was prompted to take this option due to the advice of some of his colleague military rulers at the time such as the late Saddam Hussein and the late Muammar Gaddafi.

Recall Nigeria just received $311 million stolen during the Abacha regime from the US and the Bailiwick of Jersey earlier in the month.

According to economic figures, an estimate of $5 billion is said to have been looted from country during Gen Sani Abacha’s five-year rule, even at the moment, new discoveries of funds stashed abroad are being made.

According to an analysis by TheCable, the Abacha Loot recovered in a space of 22 years - 1998 to 2020 amounts to $3.624 billion.

It should be noted that since the administration of ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo who ruled from 1999 to 2007, Nigeria has continuously been receiving billions of dollars reportedly looted by Abacha from foreign governments.

The Nigerian government recently repatriated $311 million from the popular Abacha loot which has been further injected into the major projects currently carried out by the government.However, in an interview with The Nation, Galadima refuted the fact that the former military dictator looted any monies as widely reported.

According to Galadima, in a wave of recent rumors that the US was to issue sanctions on the Nigerian government, Abacha was advised to stash the money abroad.

Galadime added that his colleague dictators who on one occasion or the other, had witnessed some US sanctions at the time, advised Abacha to tow the same path they followed to have some money left in case the economic downturn became worse off due to the sanctions.

According to Galadima, the leaders who advised Abacha then were Saddam Hussein of Iraq and Muammar Gaddafi of Lybia. His words: "I have a completely different idea about what you called Abacha loot. I know as a fact that at that time, Abacha with knowledge of key members of his government, who knew about this money being stacked out, he was rightly advised by some of his colleague presidents around the world. "Saddam Hussein was one of them. Muammar Gaddafi was one of them. They advised him that there was the likelihood that the US could sanction Nigeria and as such he should save money outside that could last the country, at least, six months, even Nigeria’s account was blocked by the US, there won’t be panic."
Galadima who was the Director-General in the Nigerian Maritime Authority hinted that by virtue of his position, he was included and called 'an Abacha boy'.

He also mentioned he was privy to information in the oil and gas circle and crude import/export of which Iraq and Lybia were major players at the time. He further insisted that the views by Nigerians that Abacha looted the money are based on ignorance but because the country os running a democratic government, people were free to say whatever they liked and go free irrespective of whether they are presenting the facts or not.