Nigeria, April 9 -- The federal government has refused an attempt by United States lawmaker, Chuck Grassley, to block the repatriation of $320m laundered by the late military dictator, Sani Abacha.

Mr Grassley, who is the highest ranking senator in the US, had questioned the Department of Justice why the US was returning such funds to Nigeria.

The senator had said the Muhammadu Buhari-led administration has a high record of human rights violations and thus such funds should not be returned to Nigeria.

In the letter dated April 1 and addressed to Deborah Connor, who is Chief Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Section of the Department of Justice (DOJ), Mr Grassley made reference to a Bloomberg report which exposed Nigeria's arrangement...