UK recovers fresh $23.4m Abacha loot, two years after Nigeria received $311m from Jersey Island
The National Crime Agency (NCA), a United Kingdom’s law enforcement agency, said it had recovered $23.4 million stolen from Nigeria by the associates and family of former military dictator General Sani Abacha.
In a statement obtained by Neusroom.com, NCA said, “the funds form part of a larger pool of monies identified by the United States Department of Justice (USDOJ) as having been misappropriated by Abacha and his associates.”
This is coming exactly two years after the Nigerian government received $311 million Abacha’s loot from the Jersey Island in May 2020.
Abacha ruled Nigeria from November 1993 to June 1998 after declaring himself ruler following the resignation of the interim President Ernest Shonekan.
Since his death over 20 years ago, the Nigerian government has been receiving repatriated funds stolen by the former military dictator.
The NCA said, acting on a request from the USDOJ, it pursued nearly seven years of protracted litigation and international negotiation to obtain the recovery order, to enforce the US forfeiture order relating to the recovered monies.
“The funds have now been transferred to the Home Office for onward transmission to the USDOJ,” the statement read.
The Asset Denial Senior Manager at the NCA, Billy Beattie, said: “The NCA is committed to ensuring that the UK is not a safe haven for criminals to launder their proceeds of crime, and civil recovery of assets is a powerful weapon in this fight.
“We work closely with UK and international partners to tackle the threat posed by corruption, which disproportionately impacts the poorest and most vulnerable members of society. We are committed to ensuring that those who perpetuate corruption do not benefit from their actions.”
The NCA case is ongoing, with further monies having been identified by the USDOJ as having also been misappropriated by Abacha and his associates.
During his brutal regime, Abacha 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.
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 raise 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 were Ogoni activist and playwright Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other activists from Ogoni Rivers State in 1995.
His death in 1998 sparked wild jubilation across the southern part of the country.
Since he died in 1998, the Nigerian government has received looted funds.
How much was looted by Abacha?
According to Transparency International, Abacha is suspected of looting between US$3 and $5 billion in public funds. The moves to recover the looted funds started 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 which is the latest. 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 due to accrued interest.
Most of the funds so far repatriated to Nigeria are from Switzerland while the other recoveries came from UK and U.S.
