$5bn Abacha Loot: US Investigates Buhari, Others

By Fola James

The United States of America, USA has warned that several millions of dollars recovered from late Ganeral Sani Abacha and his family may have been stolen by succeeding administrations in the country.

According to checks by the magazine over $5bn was stolen and lodged in safe havens and banks across the Switzerland, Europe and America by late General Abacha and his cronies.

A huge part of that has been recovered since 1999, the recent being the $308 million, the Donald Trump administration returned to the federal government last week.

But future recovery of such funds could be difficult in the face of allegations that the loot have been diverted and re-looted.

The US government and other European countries will no longer send such funds back to Nigeria, because of the belief that it will be mismanaged, it was learnt.

The United states is the latest to express dissatisfaction with how Nigerian governments have managed the stolen funds, the magazine has learnt.

The UK and Switzerland have had the course to warn the federal government in the recent past over the issue.

Olanipekun Olukayode, an official of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC  said last week in Lagos that the US government no longer guarantees future return of such funds.

He said “Two weeks ago, I was privileged to be on the team that went to recover $308million for Nigeria. They are from Washington.

“You know what they told us when we wanted to sign the treaty? They had the audacity to look into our eyes and said: ‘If you people steal this money again, we will collect it back from you.’

The Buhari government has denied allegation that it  mismanaged the Abacha loot.

The same claim by other successive administrations that the funds was used for projects across the country.

For instance, the Buhari government claims that a huge part of the recovered funds was used to finance its social programmes such as N-Power and Trader moni.

May be a few Nigerians are persuaded by such argument.

The funds, some angry Nigerians may have been misused or diverted on projects that don’t really impact on their lives.

SERAP, an anti-corruption body in the country recently threatened to drag the federal government to court, if it failed to account for billions of dollars seized from Abacha who died on June 4, 1998.

In the letter dated February 14, 2020, signed by Kolawole Oluwadare, its deputy director and sent to the Minister of Finance and Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, the body said Buhari must account for whatever his government  received from the loot.

SERAP demands the FG to disclose details of how the recovered loots were spent, details of projects executed with the funds and their locations, details of companies and contractors involved in the execution of any of such projects, details of all the agreements on the loot, the roles played by the World Bank and other actors, as well as the implementation status of all projects since 1999.

“We are concerned that substantial part of the estimated $5 billion returned Abacha loot since 1999 may have been diverted, re-stolen or mismanaged, and in any case remain unaccounted for,” SERAP said in a letter sent to the federal government.

It accused the government of not being transparent with the Abacha loot.

Therefore, “Publishing the details of projects on which Abacha loot has been spent would allow the public to know the specific projects carried and the areas of the country in which the projects have been implemented as well as the officials that may be responsible for any alleged diversion or mismanagement of the loot,” SERAP said.