Government enlists FBI in search of US $2.2 billion loot

Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo has formally asked his United States counterpart, Bill Clinton, for help in the recovery of over US $2.20 billion allegedly stolen form the Central Bank of Nigeria by the late military ruler, General Sani Abacha and his family. "It was not clear whether a trip to the United States at the weekend by the National Security Adviser, Lieutenant General Aliyu Mohammed Gusau, was connected with the Federal Government's request to the US authorities," said `The Guardian', a leading Lagos newspaper, on Monday. It said "it was believed" that agents from the Nigerian Police Special Fraud Unit and the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had initiated an enquiry. Clinton's promise to help Nigeria recovery the money had strengthened the on-going investigations, it said quoting presidential sources. Obasanjo has also written to "the highest authorities" in Belgium, Britain, France and Switzerland, the paper quoting the official as saying, to pursue charges of "criminal conspiracy, large-scale misappropriation of public funds, corrupt enrichment and stealing involving the sum of $111 million belonging to the Federal Government."