The United Kingdom (UK), on Thursday announced the recovery of $23,439,724.98 (N9.730bn) allegedly looted out of Nigeria in the 1990s by the associates and family of former Nigerian Head of State, General Sani Abacha.
The UK National Crime Agency (NCA) who made this disclosure, said the recovery is part of a wider pool of funds identified by the United States Department of Justice (USDOJ) as having been stolen out of Nigeria in the 1990s by Mr Abacha and his accomplices.
A statement posted on the U.K.’s crime agency website, revealed that the recovery was made following request from the USDOJ.
According to the statement, NCA pursued nearly seven years of protracted litigation and international negotiation to obtain the recovery order, to enforce the US forfeiture order relating to the recovered monies.
Billy Beattie, Asset Denial Senior Manager at the NCA, said the civil recovery of assets is a powerful weapon in the fight against corruption.
The official also added that the NCA is committed to ensuring that the UK is not a haven for criminals to launder their proceeds of crime.
“The NCA is committed to ensuring that the UK is not a haven for criminals to launder their proceeds of crime, and the civil recovery of assets is a powerful weapon in this fight.
“We work closely with the UK and international partners to tackle the threat posed by corruption, which disproportionately impacts the poorest and most vulnerable members of society.
“We are committed to ensuring that those who perpetrate corruption do not benefit from their actions.”
Checks by The New Diplomat revealed that the latest recovery of loot linked to Abacha stood at N9,730,298,633.70.
Despite passing away in 1998, Abacha has been humorously described as one of the ancestors of Nigeria who has been donating money generously to successive governments from the land of the dead.
Nigeria had in the past recovered several tranches of Abacha loot, including the latest, US$308 million laundered by Kebbi State governor, Abubakar Bagudu, from Jersey.
In 2006, about $723 million in Abacha loot was returned to Nigeria from Switzerland. In June 2014, Nigeria received $277m from Liechtenstein.
