Court Gives UK Go-ahead to Trace Abacha Loot




By Ndubuisi Francis

19^th October, 2001.

Nigeria yesterday scaled the first hurdle in her attempt to recover the over US $1.9 billion allegedly stashed away by the late Head of State, General Sani Abacha, in British banks as a British court gave its government the go-ahead to help Nigeria trace the money.

The High Court threw out a suit by lawyers representing Gen. Abacha's son, Mohammed and a London-based business partner, Abubakar Bagudu, who wanted to block moves to probe the alleged loot.

The British government, which has vowed to crack down on suspect movement of money as part of the US-led war against terrorism, hailed the decision and promised swift assistance for Nigeria in tracing the missing millions.

"The Home Secretary ... now hopes to proceed with granting the assistance sought as soon as possible," a Home Office spokeswoman said.

"The decision is timely as Prime Minister Tony Blair's government has made much of its resolve to stop the shadowy flows of funds that pass unnoticed around the world, be they looted by dictators or drummed up by terrorists", the official said.

Britain has been accused of providing easy conduit for illicit money transfers through the complex structures of the City of London. Fifteen British banks were actually censured in March for lax controls on Abacha's accounts.

Nigeria wants London bank accounts linked with Abacha to be frozen because they are believed to hold close to US $2 billion pounds said to have been stolen from public till.

The government agreed in May to help its Nigerian counterpart to trace the funds. But Mohammed Abacha and Bagudu challenged the decision, arguing that Britain had adopted unfair procedures and should not be allowed to supply material gathered in Britain to Geneva, where a criminal investigation is under way involving the missing funds.

Lord Justice Tuckey said yesterday that there was no evidence that the Home Secretary had exercised his discretion wrongly, or that he should be required to reconsider the matter.

He said issues of foreign law and procedure had been raised which the secretary of state could not possibly be expected to resolve.

"They cannot be used as the basis for further delaying the implementation of the Secretary of State's decision, which we consider to be lawful, to provide the cooperation which the requesting state is entitled to receive and the United Kingdom is obliged to give," he said.

Abacha, who ruled Nigeria from 1993 until his death on June 8 1998, with his family has been under intense investigation relating to his government's flagrant abuse of human rights and more particularly alleged diversion of US $3 billion of public funds into secret accounts in Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Luxembourg.

Mohammed Abacha has been in detention awaiting trial on murder charges.

In May 2000 eight accounts totalling the equivalent of 620 million dollars were confiscated by Luxembourg authorities at Nigeria's request.

Nigeria is also seeking to recover about 550 million dollars in Swiss bank accounts linked to Gen. Abacha which have been frozen by the Swiss authorities since 1999.

Mohammed Abacha was also indicted along with Bagudu in Switzerland last year on charges of money laundering, participation in a criminal organisation, embezzlement and fraud.