Decades Later, Abacha Loot Continues To Be Discovered

By Uche Mbah

Millions of Dollars continue to be repatriated from money laundered and stashed away in foreign banks by late Nigerian dictator, General Sanni Abacha, and his associates.

The National Crime Agency, the Uk based crime detection agency, has been investigating the loot in collaboration with the US Department of Justice.

Information gathered by this magazine through the NCA website indicates that the Crime Agency has recovered $23,439,724.98 from the loot laundered out of Nigeria in the 1990s, during the rule of Abacha, associates and family.

According to the report, “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.”

The NCA acted on a request from the USDOJ, which report the Agency has been investigating for the past seven years.

They had pursued a “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 DOJ website said.

According to reports, Billy Beattie, Asset Denial Senior Manager at the NCA, 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 continues with other ongoing and affiliated cases where other monies are being identified   by the USDOJ “as having also been misappropriated by Abacha and his associates.”