The High Court in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, has ordered the government to account for approximately $5 billion that was plundered by Sani Abacha, the country’s president between 1993 and 1998.
A rights group, Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP), had sued the Nigerian government, seeking to know how the administrations of Olusegun Obasanjo, Umaru Yar'Adua, Goodluck Jonathan and Muhammadu Buhari used funds recovered from Abacha.
“The ministry of finance is hereby ordered to furnish SERAP with the full spending details of about $5 billion Abacha loot within seven days of this judgement,” Judge James Omotosho said in his ruling.
Abacha died in office aged 54 after stealing billions of dollars from the Nigerian government, state-led investigations showed.
Though it remains unclear the exact amount of money Abacha plundered, Transparency International estimates that the loot was $5 billion, with most of the funds stashed in offshore accounts.
‘Security operations’
In separate investigations, the United States said Abacha stole a large amount of the money ($2 billion) under the guise that the funds would be used in security operations.
The former president allegedly made more than 60 requests to finance ministry for “security emergency funds” between 1994 and 1998.
“Rather than use the resources for national security purposes, the stolen money was transported out of Nigeria and deposited into accounts controlled by General Abacha’s associates,” the US said in an investigation report in May 2022.
Nigerian media report that at least $3.6 billion of the loot have since been recovered and surrendered to the state.
SERAP went to court seeking to find out how the subsequent governments have used the money.
Besides ordering a report on how the Abacha funds were used, the court also directed President Bola Tinubu to “disclose the exact amount of money stolen by Sani Abacha.”
Agreements
Tinubu has also been tasked to reveal the total amount of money recovered thus far, and all agreements pertaining to the funds as had been signed by the governments of Obasanjo, Yar’Adua, Jonathan and Buhari.
The court further tasked the government to show proof of any projects undertaken using funds recovered from Abacha.
Nigerian newspaper Vanguard reports that Judge Omotosho ordered Tinubu’s administration to prove “locations of any such projects and the names of companies and contractors that carried or are carrying out the projects since the return of democracy in 1999.”
The judge further dismissed finance ministry’s claim that it wasn’t the custodian of funds recovered from the former leader.
“The ministry cannot use a blanket statement that it was not in possession of the said-records of about $5 billion Abacha loot sought by SERAP. The government failed to provide details of the projects executed with the money,” said Omotosho.
On July 8, SERAP wrote to President Tinubu, asking him to honour the court’s directives.
Right to information
The government had argued that SERAP did not justify its interest in the matter.
The court, however, dismissed that argument, saying there was “no need to show any special interest in the information sought,” and that the Nigerian constitution “gives a person the right to access any information from any public institution.”
In November 2022, the US government repatriated $20.6 million traced to Abacha and his close associates.
“This repatriation brings the total amount forfeited and returned by the United States in this case to approximately $332.4 million,” the American government said.
General Abacha was Nigeria’s defence minister and the highest-ranking military official. In 1993, he orchestrated a coup d'état which overthrew the transitional government of Ernest Shonekan.
