Swiss authorities are set to repatriate to Nigeria, $380 million looted by Sanni Abacha, former head of state, Geneva’s public prosecutor revealed on Tuesday.
The $380 million will be returned under the supervision of the World Bank. Since his death in 1998, monies running into billions of dollars embezzled by Abacha, who ruled Nigeria for a period of five years, have been returned to the country in batches. The prosecutor said the latest of the loot to be returned was placed in several accounts that were controlled by the Abacha family but was confiscated last year following an agreement between the federal government and the family.
The agreement led to the dropping of a case against Abba Abacha, one of the sons of the late dictator. In 2012, Abba was handed a one-year suspended prison sentence for participating in a criminal organisation. But Switzerland’s top court cancelled the sentence in May 2014, citing procedural reasons. However, the prosecutor said Abba has already been detained for 561 days from 2004 to 2006, without receiving compensation.
The Abacha affair began in 1999, when Nigeria asked the Swiss judicial authorities to help recover $2.2 billion (2 billion Euros) embezzled and siphoned by Abacha while he was in power
