Government recovers US $66 million in loot

Nigeria’s government announced on Thursday it had recovered US $66 million illegally transferred abroad during the last military regimes, according to news reports. “The Federal Government of Nigeria has received the total sum of US $66 million, less $1.64 million for legal fees,” Jerry Gana, Nigeria’s information minister, told reporters in Abuja, the Nigerian capital. He said the government could not release the name of the account holder for legal reasons. This is the first looted money retrieved by the government from officials of previous regimes since President Olusegun Obasanjo took office on 29 May 1999. To do this, his administration has had to freeze the accounts of former officials and take legal action. At least US $1.4 billion linked to the family and friends of the late military leader Sani Abacha is frozen in accounts in Liechtenstein, Luxembourg and Switzerland, AFP reported.