More than one billion 'Abacha' dollars to be returned

Nigeria is to receive more than US $1 billion in an out-of-court settlement of a case against relatives and associates of its former president, the late Sani Abacha, the Swiss Federal Office of Justice (FOJ) reported on Wednesday, in Geneva. US $535 million is to be sent back from Switzerland while the rest will come from other countries.

Nigeria in 1999 requested Switzerland to freeze any assets Abacha had kept, prompting the Swiss government to block US $83 million in bank accounts in Geneva and Zurich. Nigeria made similar requests to several countries, including the UK, Luxembourg and Liechtenstein, where Abacha was believed to have assets.

"Switzerland (was) informed that Nigeria signed an out-of-court settlement with defendants in the Abacha case," the FOJ said on Wednesday. "Nigeria will discontinue criminal proceedings against the persons in the settlement, and delete their names from requests for judicial assistance submitted to foreign countries.

In return, the largest part of the Abacha assets blocked in foreign countries, in excess of one billion US dollars, are to be transferred to the Bank for International Settlements in Basel in favour of Nigeria."

Under the settlement, Nigerian authorities agreed to release to the Abacha family US $100 million, which the family acquired before Abacha became president. They will also abandon various criminal proceedings, particularly against Mohammed Sani Abacha, son of the former head of state, and a businessman, Bagudu Abubakar. Mohammed has been in jail since 1999 on murder charges.

Abacha, family members and representatives of his regime - are believed to have "systematically plundered" the Nigerian central bank for some years, the FOJ said in January. Nigerian authorities accuse them of a number of property crimes including embezzlement, fraud, forgery and money laundering, it added.

According to the Nigerian request for legal assistance, "the criminal organisation set up by Sani Abacha plundered the treasury to the tune of more than USD $2.2 billion". General Abacha ruled Nigeria for five years. He died in 1998.

There was no official reaction from the Nigerian government confirming or denying the deal by Thursday. But reactions from the public were mixed, ranging from approval to condemnation.

"How can you leave $100 million to the family on the grounds there was no evidence it was stolen?" one caller who gave his name as Ekene Amadi asked. "It is self-evident that there's no way a general could have earned that much money honestly even if he worked for 100 years."