#BBB NEWS| Switzerland To Return Confiscated Abacha Funds To Nigeria

Switzerland will soon return $321m confiscated from Sani Abacha’s clan to the Nigerian government.

The Swiss head of the Department of Foreign Affairs, Didier Burkhalter, will be meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari tomorrow in Abuja to discuss the restitution of these funds.

A coalition of Nigerian and Swiss civil society organizations have called on the governments of both countries to ensure that the returned assets are used to benefit the Nigerian population and that the process of restitution is as transparent as possible.

“These funds must be allocated to projects of public interest, and use a transparent process involving Swiss and Nigerian NGOs to do so,” the coalition stated in its letter addressed to the concerned authorities.

#BBB NEWS| Abacha Loot: Inside The Secret Deal Jonathan Authorized To Shield Ex-Dictator’s Family From Prosecution

For allegedly helping their father plunder Nigeria of an estimated $5 billion in the 1990s, Mohammed and Abba Abacha, and other relatives of the late dictator, Sani Abacha, have been rewarded by the Nigerian government.

A secret deal between the government and the Abachas, wants the family to return part of the loot, in exchange for perpetual immunity against prosecution.

The deal, kept classified for months, was personally approved by President Goodluck Jonathan in July 2014, and jointly authored by the Attorney General, Mohammed Adoke.

The terms of the agreement, obtained by PREMIUM TIMES in March, have alarmed anti-corruption activists.

“The agreement is (also) a tragic triumph of impunity,” said The Berne Declaration, a Swiss nongovernmental organization, which for years has monitored efforts by the Nigerian government to recover hundreds of millions of dollars stashed by the former military ruler, and his family, in bank accounts across Europe, and America.