UK recovers fresh N9.7bn ($23.4m) Abacha loot, uncovers more stolen monies

-Late General Sani Abacha.

The United Kingdom’s National Crime Agency (NCA) has recovered $23,439,724.98 (N9.7bn) believed to have been siphoned out of Nigeria in the 1990s by the associates and family of former Head of State, General Sani Abacha.

This was revealed in a communique issued by the NCA on Thursday May 5, 2022. According to the statement, 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 also stated that the inteligence about the fund was through a report from the USDOJ and it took them seven (7) years of protracted litigation and international negotiation to obtain the recovery order, to enforce the US forfeiture order relating to the recovered monies.

The fund have now been transferred to the Home Office for onward transmission to the USDOJ.

The Asset Denial Senior Manager of the NCA, Billy Beattie, assured that the NCA is committed to ensuring that the UK is not a safe haven for criminals to launder their proceeds of crime.

“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,” she said.

The NCA stated further that the Abacha loot case is ongoing with further monies having been identified by the USDOJ as having also been misappropriated by Abacha and his associates.

Nigeria in the past have received the Abacha loot recovered by the UK, United States of America (USA), Switzerland and other countries.

During the General Abdulsalami Abubakar era in 1999, $750million was recovered while $1.2 billion was recovered in 2002; $149 million repatriated from Jersey Island, UK in 2003; $500 million recovered in 2004 from Switzerland, and another $458 million recovered in 2005 from Switzerland, all under former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration.

Former President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration also saw the recovery of $1 billion in 2012 and $380 million in 2015 respectively, both tranches from Switzerland.

Similarly, Liechtenstein and the United States repatriated the sum of $227 million and $48 million respectively in 2014 during Jonathan’s administration.

In 2020, during the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari, $311 million Abacha loot was repatriated to Nigeria from the United States and the Bailiwick of Jersey.

As of now, it is unclear if and how the latest recovery of the $23.4m will be transferred to the federal government of Nigeria.

The Nigerian government has yet to react to this new recovery.