On Sunday, April 30, 2023, the Nigerian Government revealed that funds released so far to transport citizens from warring Sudan to neighbouring countries was spent on hiring buses.
The Permanent Secretary of the Humanitarian Affairs Ministry and Chair of the Situation Room on the evacuation of Nigerians from Sudan, Nasir Sani-Gwarzo, stated this after a closed-door meeting of the ministry in Abuja, as seen in a video posted online by Channels TV.
Sani-Gwarzo revealed that $30,000 (N21.5 million) was paid per bus and that 40 buses were hired for the evacuation trip from Sudan to Egypt, where the stranded Nigerians will be airlifted back to their home country.
According to him, “It’s ($1.2 million) only for one item, for the buses. Do you know how much it takes to hire a bus from Khartoum to the border? $30,000 per bus. $30,000 per bus times 40 uses.
“That is where $1.2 million comes into. We now sent first tranche approved by the Federal government out of this, which is $400,000 and transferred it. If you take out $400,00, what does it come to?
“Once they give you 13 buses. 13 buses times $30,000 is how much- $390,000. They stopped giving us. You remember I told you they gave us 13 buses. They kept the $10,000. When you are travelling in Sudan, you don’t just enter the bus and start going; you must load it with water and biscuits.
“Believe me; I just became an expert on Sudan overnight because everyday we discuss with them. And they told us our money is finished, being another money. We now transferred the balance in tranches. Believe me, you don’t transfer money to Sudan directly.
“You have to get somebody who knows the country, who will transfer and give cash. Then you go into an agreement. You sign an MOU. And at every stage, I report to the DSS (Department of State Services) and NFIU (Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit) so that they can monitor the movement of the money.”
Politics Nigeria gathered that he explained the delays experienced by Nigerians in the evacuation process, that the bus owners demanded complete payment and that any money received from a government account would first be flagged.
“Do you know that in Nigeria, if you transfer money from government account, it does not click because it has a dashboard that can be seen? They will stop it so we had to alert them, and we sent this money, and it got delayed,” he added.
