The government of Switzerland has promised to redeem all that Nigeria’s former military leader, Sani Abacha stole from Nigeria’s purse to the Federal Government.
According to the Federal Government’s negotiation with Switzerland, the Swiss government will pay back the total of $321 million Abacha stole in December.
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In a statement from the office of the Attorney General and Minister of Justice’s office, a memorandum of understanding would be signed in early December and that repatriation of the funds would follow a few weeks later.
A corruption watchdog, Transparency International, has also accused Abacha of stealing up to $5 billion of public money during the five years he was in office as the President of the country from 1993 until he died in 1998.
According to the Attorney General, Abubakar Malami issued statement, the Federal Government had recovered $85 million in funds from an oil licence deal that had been deposited in Britain.
Meanwhile, since he resumed in office as the President of Nigeria in 2015, President Muhammadu Buhari has sought help from several nations to recover money he said was taken illegally from the nation’s coffers.
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However, it is not immediately clear who deposited the money in Britain. The money was though frozen at the request of prosecutors as a result of an Italian investigation.
An investigation into the $1.3 billion sales in 2011 of oil prospecting licence (OPL) 245, which could hold more than 9 billion barrels of oil, have involved Italian, Nigerian and Dutch authorities and two of the world’s largest international oil companies.
It was initially awarded in 1998 to Malabu Oil and Gas before Royal Dutch Shell and Eni were awarded the rights in 2011 for $1.3 billion.
Shell has said it was aware that some of the payments it made to Nigeria for rights to the oilfield would go to Malabu, a company associated with former Nigerian oil minister and convicted money launderer Dan Etete.
“Nigeria had recently recovered the sum of $85 million from the controversial Malabu Restrained Funds from the United Kingdom,” the statement said.
In Reuters reports it was gathered that the money is part of funds related to OPL 245 payments that have been frozen in bank accounts around the world.
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