UNBRIDLED Nigerian Corruption.
Nigeria: Abacha's Son to Pay N53.2 Billion
Lawal Sabo with agency reports
Abuja — A court in Switzerland had yesterday, ordered the seizure of $350m, roughly about N53.2bn, worth of assets from the son of Nigeria's former military ruler, late General Sani Abacha.
Abba Abacha, the youngest male of the Abacha children, was convicted of being a member of an unnamed criminal organisation that specialises in money laundering and was given a suspended custodial sentence.
Nigerian state lawyers believe Sani Abacha, who ruled Nigeria from 1993, when he forced Chief Ernest Shonekan out in a 'silent coup'; until his death in 1998, may have pilfered about $2.2bn, equivalent of over N334bn, from the public treasury.
The Swiss authorities pursued Abba Abacha for six years before extraditing him in 2005, from Germany, where he fled to, when the Obasanjo government waged what was seen as a vindictive war on the Abacha family.
The BBC reports that,the examining magistrate sentenced him to a suspended jail term, and ordered the confiscation of his assets of $350m, as revealed by a Geneva canton's justice office in a statement. Adding that, Abba can however appeal the judgement "[The money] is held by his criminal organisation and seized through international assistance in Luxembourg and the Bahamas," the BBC added.
This development can serve as a great setback for the ambition of the eldest of the Abacha's progeny to rule Kano, the home state of the late General. Mohammed Abacha's posters in PDP colours, are all over the place, seeking for the Kano gubernatorial mandate come 2011.
It could be recalled that, Switzerland began investigating the Abacha family in 1999, after Nigeria's return to civilian rule and has so far handed back about $700m of the recovered loot to Nigeria. But the whereabouts of that recovered loot, most of which was believed to have been repatriated to Nigeria during Obasanjo's tenure as Nigeria's civilian ruler is yet unknown.
Lawal Sabo with agency reports
Abuja — A court in Switzerland had yesterday, ordered the seizure of $350m, roughly about N53.2bn, worth of assets from the son of Nigeria's former military ruler, late General Sani Abacha.
Abba Abacha, the youngest male of the Abacha children, was convicted of being a member of an unnamed criminal organisation that specialises in money laundering and was given a suspended custodial sentence.
Nigerian state lawyers believe Sani Abacha, who ruled Nigeria from 1993, when he forced Chief Ernest Shonekan out in a 'silent coup'; until his death in 1998, may have pilfered about $2.2bn, equivalent of over N334bn, from the public treasury.
The Swiss authorities pursued Abba Abacha for six years before extraditing him in 2005, from Germany, where he fled to, when the Obasanjo government waged what was seen as a vindictive war on the Abacha family.
The BBC reports that,the examining magistrate sentenced him to a suspended jail term, and ordered the confiscation of his assets of $350m, as revealed by a Geneva canton's justice office in a statement. Adding that, Abba can however appeal the judgement "[The money] is held by his criminal organisation and seized through international assistance in Luxembourg and the Bahamas," the BBC added.
This development can serve as a great setback for the ambition of the eldest of the Abacha's progeny to rule Kano, the home state of the late General. Mohammed Abacha's posters in PDP colours, are all over the place, seeking for the Kano gubernatorial mandate come 2011.
It could be recalled that, Switzerland began investigating the Abacha family in 1999, after Nigeria's return to civilian rule and has so far handed back about $700m of the recovered loot to Nigeria. But the whereabouts of that recovered loot, most of which was believed to have been repatriated to Nigeria during Obasanjo's tenure as Nigeria's civilian ruler is yet unknown.
Labels: Corruption
posted by KYJurisDoctor at 6:36 PM
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