Some N40billion allegedly stolen by General Sani Abacha, former Nigeria’s maximum ruler is trapped in Liechtenstein, a doubly landlocked alpine country in Central Europe, which has employed all manner of tactics not to repatriate the loot.
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, finance minister, said that Nigeria has been fighting to recover the money for years, but companies linked to the Abacha family keep going to court to prevent the funds being repatriated.
Abacha was a former military dictator, who died 14 years ago,
Okonjo-Iweala was quoted as saying that, “We feel that the Liechtenstein people have been stalling for 14 years. They are just looking for excuses and I think this is where international civil society should mount pressure on these people…The authorities are holding things back.”
However, a Liechtenstein government spokesman said that the country was making efforts to return the money but a complaint in the European Court of Human Rights brought by companies affected was still pending.
According to Transparency International, Abacha looted between $3 billion (about N480billion) and $5 billion (about N800billion) of public funds during his five-year reign from 1993-1998.
A Liechtenstein court ordered the Abacha money confiscated in 2012, but companies linked to his family have mounted a challenge in the European Court of Human Rights and Liechtenstein fears being liable for the money should they win.
“We’re asking: why have they been keeping our money all this time? Fronting companies for Abacha family are trying to delay things and Liechtenstein is hiding behind that,” Okonjo-Iweala said. “Somebody’s making money off it.”
The Liechtenstein spokesman said one of the reasons the cases have dragged on for so long is that Nigeria refused the examination of witnesses in its courts as part of the procedure.
Liechtenstein, like neighbour Switzerland, is seen as an attractive destination for wealth, partly because banking secrecy laws can help keep it away from prying eyes.
Nigeria has so far recovered around $1.3 billion (about N208billion) of Abacha’s money from various European jurisdictions – more than a third of it from Switzerland.
“Switzerland has actually been quite good. They returned $500 million (about N80billion). But there’s still money lying in other parts of Europe,” Okonjo-Iweala said.
Other places where Abacha held money include France, Britain and offshore centers in the British Isles like Jersey.
Nigeria has appointed World Bank consultants to oversee the money and ensure it is properly spent, Okonjo-Iweala said.
The Liechtenstein spokesman said that despite the court case, authorities were “looking at the possibility of returning money ahead of schedule whilst still covering liability risks.”
The role of Western banks in aiding African corruption was highlighted during the trial of James Ibori, ex-governor of Nigeria’s oil-producing Delta State last year.
Ibori and his mistress were convicted in a trial that showed they had laundered millions of pounds /dollars through accounts they held at several British banks.