“Before Abacha died, our foreign reserve rose to over $900 billion” – Hamza Al-Mustapha says late Sani Abacha was not a thief

Late General Sani Abacha’s former Chief Security Officer, Major Hamza Al-Mustapha, has said the “Abacha loot” were stolen by the dictator’s successors.

Al-Mustapha queried the source of the stories, saying they were just lies against his late boss. He spoke on the Voice of America, VOA, Hausa Service, monitored by journalists in Kaduna on Thursday according to Vanguard Newspaper.

According to him, when late Abacha assumed leadership in Nigeria, there was about $200 billion in Nigeria’s foreign reserve. “But before Abacha died, our foreign reserve rose to over $900 billion,” he said. He said late Abacha had stepped on so many toes while he held forte, which is the reason some people were so angry and could sponsor such lies against him. 

All the money been repatriated, Al-Mustapha said, were those stolen by some leaders who served after Abacha’s death. He alleged that late Abacha’s successors in the Presidential Villa were the thieves who stole the billions and hid the money elsewhere.

He said: “I was forced to implicate the leadership of the defunct PTF under President Buhari then, during the military era. “If there will be a genuine fight against corruption in Nigeria, many people will be arrested.”