US$4.67 billion spent on the Ajaokuta steel project

The House of Representatives launched an investigation into the Ajaokuta steel project, on which about US$4.67 billion had been spent over some 20 years without the plant becoming operational, after a World Bank report recommended scrapping it. The probe was to establish the amount spent and the project's viability, and to look into an alleged US$2.5 billion debt buy-back scam under the Abacha government, in which aides of Abacha, including his former Finance Minister, Anthony Ani, had been accused. The managing director of the steel complex, Thomas Ajayi Mayachi, said he had been kept in the dark about some large contracts awarded to foreign contractors.