The Abacha Loot: What you need to know about the recovered funds and how they’ve been spent
Nigerians were not too surprised when the National Crime Agency (NCA), a United Kingdom law enforcement agency, announced on Thursday, May 5, 2022, that it had recovered another $23.4 million stolen from Nigeria by the associates and family of former military dictator General Sani Abacha.
This is coming exactly two years after the Nigerian government received $311 million Abacha’s loot from Jersey Island in May 2020.
In the last 20 years, the Nigerian government has been receiving steady huge funds looted and stashed in foreign countries by the late military dictator who ruled Nigeria from November 1993 to June 1998 after declaring himself ruler following the resignation of the interim President Ernest Shonekan, who died on January 22, 2022.
Abacha’s regime was brutal and one that has gone down in history as one of the most cruel. He jailed friends and condemned many enemies to death through military decrees, some who were not lucky to have a date before the Special Military Tribunal were murdered by ‘unknown’ state-sponsored assassins. Some of the suspected assassins would later confess that they acted on the orders of Major Hamza Al-Mustapha, Abacha’s ex-Chief Security Officer.
Many journalists and activists, as well as political figures like former President Olusegun Obasanjo, ex-military vice president Shehu Musa Yar’adua, acclaimed winner of the 1993 Presidential election, Chief MKO Abiola, who refused to dance to Abacha’s tune or raised their voice to criticise his draconian rule were arrested and locked up in prisons far away from their families. His regime also marked the mass exodus of many prominent figures from the country – Nobel Laureate Prof Wole Soyinka, former Lagos Governor Bola Tinubu and many others fled through land borders.
Prominent among those executed by the Abacha regime was Ogoni activist and playwright Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other activists from Ogoni Rivers State in 1995.
To say Abacha abused human rights will be seen as an attempt to be mild to the dead, he was draconian and ruled with utmost impunity. He never listened to voice of dissent, when Pope John Paul II met with Abacha on Saturday March 21 1998 during his three days visit to Nigeria and made a request for the release of about 60 prisoners, he didn’t respond just like he turned deaf ears to same request from late Nelson Mandela then President of South Africa who repeatedly asked for the release of Abiola from detention.
While he was doing all these and silencing the nation, he was also involved in brazen corruption, stashing funds in local and foreign accounts, buying assets worth millions of dollars locally and in many remote Islands in Switzerland, United Kingdom and the United States.
His death in June 1998 of suspected cardiac arrest came with a relief, a large part of the population living under palpable tension went into wild jubilation, for many it was the end of a tormentor.
No sooner had he died than the new government began the process of recovering the huge funds looted by Abacha and the many assets bought with looted funds in different countries.
How much did Abacha loot?
According to Transparency International, Abacha is suspected of looting between US$3 billion and $5 billion in public funds. The moves to recover the looted funds started just after Obasanjo got into office in 1999.
Timeline of recovered funds:
During the Abdulsalami Abubakar era in 1999, $750 million was recovered.
Under Obasanjo, in April 2002, the Abacha family returned $1 billion to the federal government in a deal which involved the Swiss Federal Office of Justice. The New York Times reports that the deal allowed the family to keep $100m and required the government to drop “some criminal charges” against Mohammed, Abacha’s son.
Obasanjo in the second volume of his book titled ‘My Watch’ said “by the time I left office in May 2007, over $2 billion and £100 million had been recovered from the Abacha family abroad, and N10 billion in cash and properties locally.”
During the Goodluck Jonathan administration 2010-2015, $1 billion was recovered in 2012 and $380 million in 2015, both tranches from Switzerland. $227 million was also recovered from Liechtenstein in 2014 and $48 million from the United States the same year.
Under President Muhammadu Buhari who served as the Chairman of the Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF) during Abacha’s regime, $322 million was recovered from Switzerland in 2017 and $311 million from Jersey Island in May 2020, the latest the Nigerian government has received.
A statement from the AGF’s office said the fund had risen from the earlier $308 million the federal government negotiated for in February to $311m as a result of accrued interest.
Most of the funds so far repatriated to Nigeria are from Switzerland while the other recoveries came from UK and U.S.
Neusroom sent an email to the NCA on Thursday, May 5, 2022, to ask if the newly-recovered fund will be repatriated to Nigeria, the UK law enforcement agency is yet to respond.
How looted funds have been spent:
According to Daily Trust, funds repatriated in 2005-2006 were programmed into the national budget and utilized by the Nigerian government in line with its National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy (NEEDS).
The Federal Government said the $322m received from Switzerland in 2017 is now being distributed to poor Nigerians through the Social Investment Programme while the $311m announced on Monday May 4, 2020 will be used for the following projects – the Lagos—Ibadan Expressway; Abuja—Kano Expressway, and Second Niger Bridge.
In its response to a Freedom of Information (FoI) request sent to Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abukabar Malami (SAN), by the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP), the government said it has no record of the exact amount of public funds stolen by Abacha and no records of the spending by previous governments.
Malami said: “We have searched our records and the information on the exact amount of public funds stolen by Abacha and how recovered loot was spent from 1999–2015 is not held by the Ministry.”
Concerns over re-looting of Abacha loot:
According to Transparency International (TI), in 2006 when $723m was returned to Nigeria from Switzerland it was largely unaccounted for and this led Switzerland to attach conditions to the repatriation of another batch of $322 million in 2018, including third party oversight – meaning that the World Bank will now monitor the distribution of the funds.
The United States has also warned Nigeria to be prepared for repayment if the latest repatriated fund was re-looted. The spokesperson for the US State Department, Morgan Ortagus, in a statement said this was part of the deal with the Nigerian authorities before the Island of Jersey where the funds are being kept, agreed to its repatriation.
Abacha ex-CSO, Al-Mustapha would later justify the funds recovered by government, claiming they were not looted but were saved by the ex-dictator for rainy days.
“During the time of Abacha, sanctions were threatened upon Nigeria. And at the request of some notable Nigerians, including traditional rulers, key politicians, and businessmen from the North and South, some modalities were taken to allow monies to be saved in some foreign accounts abroad so that when sanctions come, that money will be able to keep Nigeria afloat,” he said at a media interaction at the Airport Hotel, Ikeja, Lagos on Monday May 30, 2016.
- This story was first published on May 6, 2020. It has been updated with new information about the $23.4 million loot recovered by the UK government.
