Okonjo-Iweala Reveals Why Nigeria Withdrew N100 Billion Stolen Fund Charges Against Abacha

The Minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has revealed that the federal government withdrew the N100 billion stolen funds charges against Mohammed Abacha, son of Sani Abacha, to ease the return of the N36 billion from the government of the Principality of Liechtenstein.

Mohammed Abacha, son of late Sani Abacha
She said president Jonathan had constituted an inter-ministerial committee on Thursday to manage the €167 million (about N36 billion) which is expected to be returned to Nigeria from the government of the Principality of Liechtenstein as part of the looted funds recovered from the Abacha family and he had directed them to immediately identify the best projects and programmes to spend the funds on.

She said Jonathan had also directed that part of the funds be saved for the future generation in line with the agreement reached with the Principality of Liechtenstein.


According to PREMIUM TIMES report, Okonjo said the World Bank would be involved in the process towards effective utilisation of the recovered money, adding that the recovered funds would be received by Nigeria latest by June 25.

Celebrating the return of the funds, she described it as a major achievement of the government from its over 16-year effort.

In the beginning of March 2014 the United States ordered a freeze of $458m in assets stolen by the late Head of State, Gen. Sani Abacha and his accomplices.

In a surprising development, the government dropped embezzlement charges against Mohamed Abacha, the late dictator’s eldest son, who was accused of receiving N100bn ($600m) of the late dictator’s money.

The government had struck a deal with the Abacha family trading away about N100 billion for about N36.32 billion which many have described as another demonstration of government’s insensitivity and lack of commitment to fighting corruption in Nigeria.

The Lead Director, Centre for Social Justice, Eze Onyekpere, described the deal as the most absurd style of plea bargaining, which would encourage impunity, corruption and stealing of public funds by the country’s leaders.

The National President, National Youth Council of Nigeria, NYCN, Wale Ajani, described the Nigerian government’s action as very unfortunate and one that would show the international community that the present administration was not serious about the fight against corruption.