Says he's proud of what the agreement has achieved 
By Kola Ologbondiyan


President Olusegun Obasanjo has said that the compromise deal the Federal Government reached with the family of the late Head of State, General Sani Abacha, whereby the family would refund over $1 billion or 80 per cent of their liquid asset in exchange for freedom from litigation, is one of the hardest decisions of his life.

The president, however, added that he is proud of what the agreement has been able to achieve.

Obasanjo's position threw more light on THISDAY's March 17, 2002 exclusive report that the Federal Govern-ment and the Abacha family reached an out-of-court settlement in which the chunk of the money Abacha looted when he was Head of State between 1993 and 1998 will be returned to the Federal Government.

The President who gave a detailed account of the terms of the deal in this week's cover story of TELL Magazine May 27, 2002 entitled: My Deal with the Abachas said "our lawyer has been on this job for well over two years. The first thing we did was to be able to freeze the Abacha family loot where we were able to get the cooperation of the judiciary and governments of those countries. And what we were able to freeze in real cash and par bonds was close to $2 billion.

"We fought a case in London and we got $150 million or thereabouts released, about 300 million Deutschmark. Then there were little ones like $20 million by another group and that kind of thing," he further explained.

Obasanjo said he finally opted for the compromise deal when it became obvious that continuing with the litigation would not only be expensive and time consuming , it would be fruitless. 

"That case in London, for instance, cost us to maintain our lawyer a little bit over $1 million. The Abacha family lawyer was paid over $12 million. They were able to pay that because it is not their money. It's your money and my money. But what the lawyer wanted on their side was to go on endlessly and they can do that almost for ever," he said.

The president also explained that examples from other lands have shown that litigations don't bring refund of looted monies. 

"If any of you knew where Marcos of Philippines money had been recovered by the Philippines come and tell me. Or you knew where the Shah of Irans money had been recovered by Iran, come and tell me or where Mobutu's money had been recovered by Zaire, now Democratic Republic of Congo, come and tell me. 

"So, our lawyers came and said: Well you have a choice to make. We got to a situation where we can get about $1.2 billion and the Abacha family may be $100 million and par bonds of about $300 million. But the value will be about 50 per cent of that because it matures in the future.

"So, you have to decide whether to go for this or continue with the litigation. And that's one of the hardest decisions I have to make in my life because I know that the Abacha family hadn't legitimately done any work to deserve $100 million. 

"But should I go ahead to recover $1.2 billion of Nigeria's money or go to tell Nigerians that we are fighting this case and 25, 30 years from now you wouldn't get anything. So I told the lawyer "let me think about it because it wasn't an easy decision for me.

"So, when I thought about it I said well at the end of the day, I had to explain to Nigerians. So the other thing was that the Abacha family wanted to be exonerated from litigation on the money that had been frozen because we asked them: "Do you have money anywhere else?" They said no. But if we find any money anywhere else, that is our own you are not absolved from litigation. So that is the agreement," he stated.

Obasanjo, however, explained that the agreement was not exactly a bad deal. "Even the Financial Times said this is a model for any country to follow because no country has been able to achieve as much as that or anything close to that. So, I'm proud of what we have been able to achieve," he said.

In March, THISDAY had reported that the federal government and the Abacha family were involved in out-of-court settlement that would see the family surrendering about $1.2 billion, being the lion's share of their fortune, in a freedom from litigation deal.

The out-of-court settlement, according to the report, was proposed and detailed out by the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Mr. Kanu Agabi (SAN). 

Although the freedom from litigation is only limited to looted funds, analysts believe that the new deal would make it possible to resolve all the criminal matters against the scion of the Abacha family, Mohammed, who has been in detention in the last three years over criminal charges which include the June 4, 1996 murder of Alhaja Kudirat, the wife of acclaimed winner of June 12, 1993 presidential election, Basorun MKO Abiola.

The Federal Government is also believed to consider the deal a political strategy to appeal to the local sentiments in Abacha's home state, Kano, where the Obasanjo administration has been experiencing relentless criticisms spearheaded by the one-time governor of old Kano State, Alhaji Abubakar Rimi.

The hunt for the Abacha loot has been long drawn. Last month, the Swiss government decided to return the sum of $535 million to the Federal Government in the spirit of the compromise deal.

Nigeria had asked Switzerland in 1999 to help uncover the financial network it suspected Abacha had established. In response, the Swiss authorities froze around $670 million in bank accounts belonging to Abacha, Moham-med, his widow, Mariam and other relatives. 

The Swiss Justice Department said that the funds to be repaid were frozen in various accounts abroad and would be transferred to the Bank for International Settlements in Basel.

Also, not too long ago, accounts belonging to the family in 19 banks in London were ordered frozen by the British court. The Financial Times reported that banks involved included Deutsche Bank, BNP Paribus, HSBC, Barclays, Goldsman-Sachs and Citibank.

The court action came six months after the FSA found that 23 London banks had handled 1.3 billion ($1.9 billion) on behalf of associates of the former Head of State. In May 2000, eight accounts totalling the equivalent of $620 million were confiscated by Luxembourg authorities at Nigeria's request.