The widow of the late General Sani Abacha, Maryam, attempted to deny that her late husband stole from the country. Assistant Editor ERIC IKHILAE presents facts to establish the contrary.
The former First Lady and widow of the late General Sani Abacha, Maryam, recently made a futile effort in attempting to deodorise the image of her late husband.
Mrs. Abacha had, in an interview, argued against the established fact that her late husband, who presided over the affairs of the Federal Republic of Nigeria between November 17, 1993, and June 8, 1998, stole the country blind.
She claimed that the late military ruler never stole public funds, but rather saved money for the country, which, she further claimed, mysteriously vanished shortly after he died in 1998.
Mrs. Abacha was quoted to have said: “Who is the witness of the monies that were being stashed away? Did you see the signature or the evidence of any monies stashed abroad?
“And, the monies that my husband kept for Nigeria, in a few months, the monies vanished. People are not talking about that.”
She berated Nigerians for believing that her late husband stole public funds and said that “because Nigerians are fools, they listen to everything.”
The ex-First Lady contended that the consistent vilification of her late husband was rooted in prejudice and political scapegoating.
“Why are you blaming somebody? Is that tribalism or a religious problem, or what is the problem with Nigerians?
“I pray for Nigerians. I pray for all of us. I pray that we have goodness in our hearts. We should stop telling lies and blaming people,” she said.
Mrs. Abacha tasked the media to uphold its responsibility to educate and inform the public rather than propagate damaging narratives.
She said: “I think the press should try, the press, you, the press, should try to educate the people. You are here to help the country.
“You are not here to bastardise people. People are not that bad. Twenty-seven years ago, and you are still talking about Abacha. He must be very powerful and loved by Nigerians. We thank God for that.”
The immediate past President Muhammadu Buhari made a similar attempt in 2008 when, at an event marking the 10th anniversary of Abacha’s death, he claimed that Abacha was not a thief.
Confronted with evidence and unable to accept the fact, a member of Buhari’s inner circle and immediate past Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF), Abubakar Malami (SAN), found it difficult to apply the phrase – Abacha loots – while in office.
Malami, at every occasion – either when speaking on the issue or receiving successfully repatriated Abacha loots – resorted to deploying his creation – “Abacha assets”.
To many, the contention that Abacha did not steal public funds fly in the face of available facts, unearthed by investigators and affirmed by courts in decisions rendered in many jurisdictions, including Switzerland.
The evidence
A Swiss lawyer, Enrico Monfrini, engaged by the Olusegun Obasanjo administration to trace and retrieve stolen public funds hidden in many countries by the late Abacha, members of his family and associates, presented facts that rubbished the latest attempt by Mrs. Abacha, in an article he wrote.
In the article titled: “The Abacha Case,” published in a book titled: “Recovering Stolen Assets,” Monfrini gave details of how the Abacha loots were identified and efforts deployed to have them returned to Nigeria.
He noted, among others, that although “Nigeria had long been plagued by corruption, under General Sani Abacha, corrupt practices became blatant and systematic”.
He adds: “Funds were removed in cash from the Central Bank, sometimes by the truck-load, and taken out of the country by members of the Abacha family and their associates.”
How state’s funds were looted
In a January 2021 interview with the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), Monfrini noted that “one of the methods allegedly deployed by Abacha to fleece the country “was particularly brazen.”
According to him, “Abacha would tell an adviser to make a request to him for money for a vague security issue.
“He then signed off the request, which the adviser would then take to the Central Bank, which would hand out the money, often in cash.”
Monfrini added that the said aide would then take most of the loot to Abacha’s house – with some taken in dollar notes by the truckload.
He added that other methods ranged from awarding state contracts to friends at highly inflated prices and then pocketing the difference, and demanding that foreign companies pay huge kickbacks to operate in the country.
Monfrini stated that although many were aware, at the time, of the exceptional level of corruption of the Abacha regime, “the full extent of the practice and the modus operandi of those crimes were only revealed to the general public after the end of the regime and the investigations that followed.”
How the loots were discovered
On 23 July 1998, General Abdulsalami Abubakar (who succeeded Abacha) set up a Special Investigation Panel (SIP) tasked with investigating the looting and corruption that took place during the Abacha era.
The SIP had as its Chairman Peter Gana, who was serving in the Special Fraud Unit (SFU) of the Nigerian Police Force (NPF) and was then a Deputy Commissioner.
The SIP published a preliminary report in November 1998, which focused on the crimes for which evidence could be found in Nigeria, notably the systematic pillage of the Central Bank of Nigeria.
According to the SIP’s report, Abacha would direct his National Security Adviser (NSA) to present to him funding requests for security operations or equipment, which he had the power to authorise.
The report added that in most cases, the funds were directly remitted in cash in millions of United States dollars and British pounds by the Central Bank of Nigeria to the adviser, who then handed the cash to Abacha, whose family members and associates transferred the funds offshore.
During the first stages of the SIP investigation, a large quantity of assets and cash were seized in Nigeria or returned to the Nigerian authorities. Other illegally acquired assets were also identified.
In order to give a legal backing to the forfeiture of the assets, General Abubakar issued the Forfeiture of Assets, Etc (Certain Persons) Decree No. 53 of 26 May 1999.
The decree ordered the return to the Federal Republic of Nigeria, real property and movable assets, as well as cash, that had been acquired and held illegally by General Abacha, certain members of his government, certain members of his family and other third parties.
On assuming office, President Obasanjo (who succeeded General Abubakar) engaged Monfrini, who worked with the SIP report to unravel the magnitude of the Abacha loot.
With the report, Monfrini approached the Swiss Attorney General, whose efforts yielded a breakthrough after the lawyer successfully argued that the Abacha family and its associates formed a criminal organisation that almost stole Nigeria blind.
The Swiss Attorney-General subsequently issued a general alert to all the banks in Switzerland, demanding that they disclose the existence of any accounts opened under the Abachas’ names and aliases.
Monfrini states: “In 48 hours, 95 per cent of the banks and other financial institutions declared what they had, which seemed to belong to the family.
“Banks would deliver documents to the prosecutor in Geneva, and I would do the job of the prosecutor because he didn’t have time to do it,” he said.
The lawyer added that a few bank details served as clues as to where that money was stashed, noting that “the documents, showing the history of the accounts, gave me a few links to other accounts.”
According to him, Swiss banks uncovered a web of bank accounts all over the world.
He said: “We would find out on each account exactly where the money came from and/or where the money went to.
Read Also: Bamidele: how my wife used ambulance to rescue me from Abacha’s agents
“Showing the ins and outs of these bank accounts gave me further information regarding other payments received from other countries and sent to other countries.
“So it was like a snowball. It started with a few accounts, and then a large number of accounts, which in turn created a snowball effect, indicating a huge international operation.
“Bank accounts and the documents that go with them talk a lot. We had so much proof of different money being sent here and there, Bahamas, Nassau, Cayman Islands – you name it,” Monfrini said.
The size of the loot
No one has been able to successfully ascertain the actual amount that constituted the Abacha loot.
However, Nigeria is reported to have, since Abacha’s death, received about $3.61 billion so far from funds allegedly looted under the regime he headed.
According to Transparency International (TI), the military ruler stole as much as $ 5 billion during his time in office.
TI, however, put the total amount recovered since the death of the late military dictator at $3.65billion as of 2022.
Monfrini said that as of 2018, Switzerland returned more than $1 billion to Nigeria, claiming that the late dictator diverted over four to five billion dollars at the initial stage.
He stated that in 2008, the $508million found in the Abacha family’s many Swiss bank accounts was sent from Switzerland to Nigeria between 2005 and 2007.
Monfrini added that he is still expecting $30million, which is sitting in the UK to be returned, along with $144million in France and a further $18million in Jersey.
Timelines of Abacha loot’s recovery
Nigeria has, since 1999, been recovering what many have described as the endless Abacha loot.
During the Abdulsalami era in 1999, $750 million was recovered.
Under the Obasanjo administration, $1.2 billion was recovered in 2002; $149 million from Jersey Island, UK in 2003; $500 million was recovered in 2004 from Switzerland, and another $458 million was recovered in 2005 from Switzerland.
During the Goodluck Jonathan administration, $1 billion was recovered in 2012 and $380 million in 2015, both tranches from Switzerland.
The Jonathan administration also recovered $227 million from Liechtenstein in 2014 and $48 million from the United States the same year.
The Buhari Administration recovered $322 million from Switzerland in 2017 and $311 million from Jersey Island, United Kingdom, in February 2020
In August 2022, the Federal Government signed a fresh agreement with the U.S. government for the return of over $23 million looted by Abacha.
In November 2023, France announced its intention to return $150million, part of the Abacha loot.
France’s Minister of Europe and Foreign Affairs, Mrs Catherine Colonna, said in Abuja that the funds were found to have been looted by Abacha.
She said: “I also informed President (Bola) Tinubu that, in response to the request submitted by the Nigerian Federal Ministry of Justice and in agreement with the US Administration, France will return to Nigeria the assets stolen from the Nigerian people by General Sani Abacha and his family that have been frozen in France since 2021.
“We will start discussions with the Nigerian administration in order to allocate these 150m US dollars to development projects benefiting the population, according to the priorities of the Nigerian government.”
Monfrini, in concluding his article in the book: “Recovering Stolen Assets”, said: “In many regards, the Abacha case deserves to be considered a ‘success story,’ not only because of the amounts recovered so far ($2billion, of which $1.2billion internationally), but because the recoveries were obtained through the mutual co-operation of prosecutors,examining magistrates and police in several jurisdictions.”
