The Federal Government yesterday announced it was collaborating with the World Bank to recover about 185 million euros transferred to some commercial banks in Liecttenstein in Central Europe by the General Sani Abacha regime through some shell companies.

Speaking on efforts by the government to repatriate the funds which she said would be used to finance rural development projects across the country, Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, said the recovery effort started about 14 years ago under President Olusegun Obasanjo when about $500 million were also repaid by banks in Switzerland.

“We have been pursuing this money in Liechtenstein and this is part of the legacy of the Abacha monies that were taken out of the country. There has been several steps, through a lawyer, who has been working on this case as well as other cases of lost Abacha money. “But the essence is that we identified this money in Liechtenstein, through our lawyer, Mr. Erico Monfrini of Switzerland. He first started under President Obasanjo’s administration and now credit to President Goodluck Jonathan who has been pursuing it in the last few years with the same lawyer.

“The Attorney General of the Federation has also been working on this. In fact, they were working before I joined and the idea is that there has been several legal steps and challenges that have been thrown in Liechtenstein courts against returning this money,” she said.

The minister said the money was sent in through some front companies, some shell companies that were opened up in Liechtenstein and then transferred through those companies into Liechtenstein banks, stressing that the beneficiaries were really General Abacha’s companies.

She stated that at the time the funds were identified nearly 14 years ago, several legal steps were taken to get them back, noting that the companies or their representatives have always thrown legal challenges every step of the way.
She explained that it got to a stage where the courts in Liechtenstein had mitigated and said it should be returned.

However, while this was happening, the companies took the case to the European Court of Human Rights, saying that the Liechtenstein government violated their human rights by allowing the money to be taken away from them.
She stated that taking the case to court meant another two or three years delay, an indication that the country was just employing delay tactics to keep the money since they would be earning interest on it..
Okonjo-Iewala said another obstacle the Liechtenstein government created was to ask us to sign a guarantee that if the European Court of Human Rights fines them for any reason, Nigeria would indemnify them.

Source: http://sunnewsonline.com/new/cover/world-bank-partners-fg-recover-185m-euro-abacha-loot/


I just converted this our general money into Naira and this is the figure I got via Google currency converter.

N40,171,640,000.00

Hmmmmm, I pray so





I just dey first to comment these days...menh!, its now boring

Why must Our Government idemnify Dictator's accomplice for looting our precious money to enrich your land.
Smh

Recycling things. They will end up stealing the money again.

Where are the ones they have recovered before? They are just recovering to loot for themselves

Am Suppose to ?

and the circle continues

make them borrow me part of d money... I promise 2 pay back with interest

Way to go....

That guy loot nuh dey finish?

After all these years,if u pple collect it m sure u pple wil share it collectively (corruption)

Why can't d fed govt just leave Abacha †☀ rest for Gods sake, the 3.2tr naira they recovered from him after his death what did they use it for, where is the money now, why not go recover the ones Babangida, OBJ and d rest of dem have or is it cos Abacha is no more alive. As far as am concern all Politicians are criminals.

Either ways d Govt still fvcks us all...

What have they been doing with previously recovered ones

....all of them are d same tin....awon ole jati jati.....

they want to recover d money so that they can re-loot it......God bless naija

Pleas they should hurry up and see d money, so federal government can balance it up and pay ASUU so we can go back to schl. I don dey old o. Biko

It's very obvious dat after collecting all ds money 4rm ds foreign banks, it will go straight to d pockets of ds ppl.

na the money wey i borrow abacha when he ws still alive be dat o. a beg the government shld return the money to me

Mehn some leaders are simply heartless. Can you imagine the figure and the annoying part of it is that he equally got some reserve yet to be identify from other world banks.

With this money ASUU, Asup end is in sight, dancing skelewu.

iknopro: Why can't d fed govt just leave Abacha †☀ rest for Gods sake, the 3.2tr naira they recovered from him after his death what did they use it for, where is the money now, why not go recover the ones Babangida, OBJ and d rest of dem have or is it cos Abacha is no more alive. As far as am concern all Politicians are criminals.

walahi.......u are making no sense.....is the money his?

This is what happens when Nigerians keeps praying! Let's pray that it is spent judiciously

40 billion down, 460 billion to go....

I see ASUU strike ending soon

Abacha money no dey finish?

What will they do with the money after recovering it?

why recovering the money??we all ready know were it will end up.clueless poeple

emmysenior: Recycling things. They will end up stealing the money again.

Our democracy has turned to loot-o-crazy.

talk true: Where are the ones they have recovered before? They are just recovering to loot for themselves

emmysenior: Recycling things. They will end up stealing the money again.

Our democracy has turned to loot-o-crazy.