Abacha loot: David Ugolor condemns FG, Switzerland secret pact

A civil rights organisation, Africa Network for Environmental and Economic Justice, has raised the alarm on the purported secret agreement between the Federal Government, Switzerland and World Bank on the repatriation of $380m (about N75.2bn) stolen by late General Sani Abacha. The organisation which said it was sending wrong signals, also stated that the conditions for the return of the loot did not have clear guidelines and ran counter to transparent dealings. ANEEJ said, “We call on the World Bank and the Nigerian Government to make public the details of the negotiations and how they intend to monitor the use of the funds and urge the Swiss government to continue to support the process leading to the repatriation of all monies stolen from Nigeria as a safeguard against a re- looting of the repatriated funds.” A statement issued on Friday in Abuja by the Executive Director of ANEEJ, Mr. David Ugolor, advised government and the Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala to abide by the provisions of various international statutes by involving civil society organisations both at home and in the Diaspora who had been involved in the issue. He said, “We are concerned that the precedence of best practices set in 2005 when the Swiss government opted to return $500m being part of the stolen monies in a very transparent and open process, involving all stakeholders is now being undermined with the planned return of N75.2bn Abacha’s loot to Nigeria by the Swiss Government and to be ‘monitored’ by the World Bank. “Lessons from our monitoring of the repatriated $500m in 2005 under the Public Expenditure Management and Financial Accountability Review, reinforces our worries that the absence of any credible legal framework to deal with issues of stolen assets, as it stands in the present arrangement, sends the wrong signals and increases levels of anxiety of concerned civil society organisations like ours that have fought long and hard to ensure that repatriated funds from the Swiss government to Nigeria do not end up being re-looted.” ANNEJ therefore condemned government’s action by allowing Abacha’s family to go away with some of the loot saying it “certainly fuels the culture of impunity in looting public funds.” According to Ugolor, the role of the World Bank in the monitoring of recovered looted assets to countries of origins particularly Nigeria should not be used by the government to undermine the legitimate voices of the people to participate in designing and advocating a framework that will ensure that the recovered stolen assets are used transparently for the benefit of the country. “We want a framework put in place that such repatriated funds are spent on projects and programmes that would be visible and appreciated by all Nigerians and serve as a disincentive to looting of public treasury,” he said.