THERE is at least one billion dollar Abacha loot still lying in Swiss accounts, former president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo has stated, just as he blamed the World Bank for contributing to the problems of Nigeria.

Obasanjo made this startling revelation on Tuesday in Warri, Delta State, while making remarks on leadership as the major factor affecting the growth of the nation. The former president was chairman at a lecture organised in honour of Chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, as part of the series of programmes organised to mark his 40th year in ministry, which was held at the basement of the international auditorium of Word of Life Bible Church, Ajamimogha Street, Warri.

While responding to a question posed on corruption, Obasanjo derided the World Bank for only being able to blackmail countries like Nigeria as corrupt, but doing little to give away names of the corrupt individuals, the amount stolen and where the monies are kept in foreign accounts.

He blamed the bank for making Nigeria poorer by misleading her into introducing the Structural Adjustment Programme during the General Ibrahim Babangida regime even when it knew it would spell doom for the country.

"When I was president, I called the World Bank. I said, please, give me the list of the amount that has been stolen, where is it kept and who the beneficiaries are. I never got anything from the World Bank thereafter. We have on our own decided that we will investigate and get from one family, Abacha family alone," he revealed.

"From the Abacha family alone, we recovered millions of dollars. I got 1.25 billion dollars (100m pounds); and the lawyer in Swizerland (he is still there), who was doing it for us, said, when I was leaving, that if we worked harder, there was still, at least, one billion dollars that we can get from that family alone," he maintained, adding that only an insincere and mad person will not acknowledge that there is corruption in Nigeria.

Taking a swipe at the World Bank, the former president said: "It is the same World Bank who came to us and said 'Structural Adjustment Programme was good.' Of course, it only made us poorer. We said SAP would make us poorer, they said 'No.' We went for it and we are poorer today. And then they came to tell us that we did not do it the way they wanted us to do it. Many years later, they accepted that we were right and they were wrong."

He querried the inability of antigraft bodies in the country to bite as it happened during his regime. "I am not saying we are not corrupt. As a nation, we are corrupt, but are we doing something about it? I once heard people, during my regime, saying that the fear of Ribadu was the beginning of wisdom but today, there is no longer any wisdom," he averred.

Nawah ooo

[size=22pt]ABACHA NEVER LOOTED - RETURNED LOOTED NEVER BELONGED TO ABACHA[/size]


What of the $200billion Obasanjo looted himself; Including $16billon he even admitted he had taken for power projects which never happened?

In fact the evidence available is that the money he is claiming that is Abacha loot was not put there by Abacha, but by Obasanjo himself to make it appear it was Abacha's in order to discredit Abacha.

Swiss court notes on so called "Abacha Loot" case, shows Abacha maliciously and unjustly blamed

http://www.mcswisslaw.com/pages_e/2008%20Monfrini%20-%20The%20Abacha%20Case.pdf

"
The existence of a system of confiscation orders that is independent
from a criminal conviction is therefore a necessity in grand corruption
cases. In this context, reversing the burden of proof or imposing
procedural consequences on the failure of the asset holder to cooperate
regarding the origin of the assets, appear to be best legislative
practice. The presumption of innocence does not necessarily apply to
confiscation proceedings and ‘presumptions of fact or of law operate
in every criminal-law system and are not prohibited in principle’ and
therefore do not breach the right to a fair trial.28"


This is 21 page Swiss court document but the above extract is very revealing indeed.

[size=15pt]Basically, by qualifying Abacha's family members (together with hired PDP stooges who were hired to claim to be Abacha's business associates) as a 'Criminal Organisation', Nigerian Government did not need to prove that the funds in the foreign accounts belonged to Abacha, The Onus was on Abacha to proof that he was innocent of the charges.[/size]

Of course a deceased man could not do that.

Abacha's son Mohammed could not fully challenge the allegations as he was locked up at the time by Obasanjo.

When Abacha's family tried to go to court to clear their name, it was reported that they were trying to defend their loot

https://www.nairaland.com/951549/abacha-falsely-accused-looting-obasanjo

[size=18pt]Nigeria's Obasanjo and the $16 Billion Power Scam[/size]

Frontline Catholic cleric and social critic, Rev. Fr. Matthew Hassan Kukah, perhaps, spoke the minds of millions of Nigerians when he said recently that former President Olusegun Obasanjo deserved to be formally tried for his alleged role in the squandering about $16 billion voted for resuscitating the near-dead power sector during his administration between 1999 and 2007. Kukah, a close family friend of the Obasanjos, was the Secretary to the National Political Reforms Conference (NPRC) initiated by the Obasanjo government in 2005.

This call, which is a challenge to the Goodluck Jonathan administration, could not have come at a more appropriate time, especially considering the President's recent assurance that his administration would go after those who looted the national treasury, no matter how highly placed they may be. But many Nigerians doubt if Dr. Jonathan will summon the will to bring his political benefactor to book.

Dr. Kukah, who also chided critics and civil society groups for not doing enough to ensure that Obasanjo is arraigned, said: "Obasanjo probably will never be the President of Nigeria again, but we should be concerned if Obasanjo deserves to go to prison. Vilifying him doesn't give us (electric) power; it also doesn't get us the criminals that have taken our money, wherever they are. I would have loved to have Obasanjo brought to trial, because then we would know the truth." Besides the scandal ravaging the power sector, which the former President directly supervised, the double standards of the Presidency, under him, in the many established cases of corrupt self-enrichment by key government functionaries during his tenure were mind-boggling.

After the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) unearthed a N56 billion fraud by the former Board of Directors of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), for example, Obasanjo failed to institute any process towards recovering the stolen amount and/or prosecuting the culprits, who were said to be his close political allies. Rather, some of those who served on that board were appointed to other boards subsequently. Before that scandal came to light, back in July 2002, Nigerians had been shocked when the then Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Mr. Godwin Kanu Agabi, filed a nolle prosequi (discontinuance of prosecution) on the day an Abuja High Court was scheduled to deliver judgment in a case of alleged embezzlement of N420 million by Dr. Julius Makanjuola, Obasanjo's relation and a Director at the Ministry of Defence.

And in 2006, Nigerians were similarly shell-shocked over the revelation of massive pillaging at the Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF) allegedly involving Obasanjo and his Deputy, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar. This was to be followed by allegations of Obasanjo's involvements in the Transnational Corporation of Nigeria (Transcorp), which bought over Abuja's NICON Hilton Hotel, the Nigerian Telecommunications Limited (NITEL), and also acquired some oil blocks.

Fr. Kukah's recent call is timely. Nigerians continue till today to endure perennial darkness, with no real clue to the cause of the apparent intractability of the power sector's woes. It is disheartening, in this regard, that like the late President Umaru Yar'Adua, Dr. Jonathan has surrounded himself with some of the key figures that helped ex-President Obasanjo fail so dismally in service delivery. While we commend Jonathan over his appointment of Professor Bath Nnaji as Special Adviser on Power, it must be noted that Mr. Joseph Makoju, a seasoned professional, had held that same position under the Yar'Adua administration and also under the Obasanjo government. In addition, he was PHCN Managing Director for the better part of the latter administration. He ought to be facing intense interrogation over what happened to the alleged misappropriated $16 billion.

And, with discredited functionaries and contractors of the Obasanjo era still hovering around The Presidency and the PHCN, poised to snatch whatever fresh allocations go to the power sector, where is the guarantee that Nigeria will ever have improved electricity supply in the foreseeable future? While we urge the Federal Government to seek out individuals and organizations, locally and abroad, with proven track records in performance and integrity to revive the ailing sector, the issue of the mismanaged billions should not be treated as a 'family affair' of the ruling party. Nigeria's public funds must be accounted for.

Since the National Assembly Probe Committee on the Power scam was itself to be later dragged into the corruption quagmire, we call for a thorough investigation, by the EFCC, into the whereabouts of the vanished power allocations.

The former President, on his part, should cooperate fully with the investigators, in order to clear his name of the strong suspicions surrounding his administration's wasteful disbursement of the $16 billion power sector allocations. There should be no sacred cows, as he used to say while in office. Any preferential treatment of individuals will create the impression that the Nigerian government's commitment to the anti-corruption crusade, economic reform and transparent governance is cosmetic and insincere.

While sleaze in high places thrives, the ordinary citizens' quality of life has remained dismal, infrastructural facilities are decrepit, mass unemployment ravages the land, and poverty sentences the vast majority to a life of unrelieved misery.

[size=18pt]GENERAL OLUSEGUN OBASANJO: A MONSTER AS STATESMAN[/size]



Sometime in the evening of Wednesday, March 18, 2009, at the Sheikh Zayed Theatre, New Academic Building of the London School of Economics, London , England the crème de la crème of the international community will once again be gathered to listen to the ostensible wisdom of an African statesman. But this man, General Olusegun Obasanjo, Nigeria’s former president and presently the UN Secretary-General’s peace envoy in the Congo is no statesman. He’s an animal called man, a corrupt and treacherous monster soaked deep in the blood of innocent Nigerians.



As a human being, Obasanjo has had some of the rarest opportunities in public service anybody could get anywhere, which ordinarily should have been a springboard for great things were he someone with an iota of humanity or decency. After a total of eleven years as the head of state and president of Nigeria , the man is only remembered today in Nigeria as a crude, corrupt, lecherous and bloodthirsty tyrant who masqueraded as a democrat and sought at all cost to always impose his perverse will on the nation, even where it is clearly detrimental to national interest.



Before May 1999 when Obasanjo was sworn in as the civilian president of Nigeria , he has had a history of public service at the highest level also as a military head of state between 1976 and 1979. His singular act of handing over government to an elected civilian government in October 1979 was seemingly enough for Nigerians and the international community to forgive him of his atrocities as military head of state. Some of those atrocities include the setting up of the notorious secret detention centre in the island of Ita-Oko, the killing of Nigerian university students in cold blood and the invasion and razing of the home and business premises of Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, the late iconic Nigerian musician who was an ardent critic of his military government.



Obasanjo transmutation into a pretend statesman after his military career saw him set up the African Leadership Forum at Ota , Nigeria from where he talked glibly about democratic reform in Africa . But when in 1993, he was presented with an opportunity to back up his talk with action with the June 12 elections, he, not for the first time, shocked the nation with his support for the annulment of the election. He viciously attacked Chief MKO Abiola, the man elected president in the election, despite the fact that the national and international communities overwhelmingly declared the election the freest and fairest in Nigeria’s history. In open desperation, Obasanjo was soon in cahoots with his military friends setting up all sorts of anti-democratic political contraptions to negate the people’s mandate.



Obasanjo and his military friends presided over the succeeding locust years until he fell out of favour with General Sani Abacha, the then head of the military junta who jailed him on coup-plotting charges against his government in 1995. This act by the odious Abacha invariably rehabilitated Obasanjo in the eyes of Nigerians and the international community as efforts were made to first commute the sentence passed on him and then get him out of jail. Thus, in June 1998, as Obasanjo walked out of prison preaching Christ and publishing a book titled, This Animal Called Man (a psycho-analytical study of the nature of human-induced evil from the Christian perspective), Nigerians and the international community felt he’d finally learnt his lessons and found God. No sooner after he was rewarded with the presidency of the country in May 1999, he began once again to show his true colour as a wolf in sheep’s clothing.



Seven months after taking over as civilian president, Obasanjo ordered the military invasion of a community in the Niger-Delta in a vain attempt to send the message to the creeks that his government would not tolerate any agitation for fair distribution of the oil wealth irresponsible exploitation of the valuable resource in the area. Obasanjo’s army razed the whole town of Odi to the ground and killed everyone in sight. The massacre had the world in outrage; but, typically, Obasanjo ignored the cries. Just to make sure the message was heard loud and clear, Obasanjo followed up with more massacres in Choba, Igwuruta, Biogbolo and other places in the Niger-Delta.



By these actions, he succeeded in transforming the essentially non-violent agitation for equity, justice and fairness in the region into a full-blown war needing the permanent location of a huge military taskforce in the area, perennial attacks against communities and running battles between the soldiers and the militants, some of whom are the same criminal elements Obasanjo armed to intimidate his political opponents and rig elections for his party, the PDP. It is in this light we must see last year’s visit of President Umaru Yar’Adua who came to ask Downing Street for military assistance to fight the militants, indicating how escalated the problem has now become. The world may not know it, but the seeds of the present crisis were firmly sown by Obasanjo.



Less than two years after Odi, between Monday October 22 to Wednesday October 24, 2001, Obasanjo repeated the same atrocity in the central Nigerian state of Benue where he sent in his murderous soldiers to kill and burn down the communities of Zaki Biam, Vaase, Agbayin, Gbeji, Sankara and several others ostensibly for the killing of some soldiers. Amnesty International described what happened there as “a killing spree” and appropriately advised that rather than seeking to deny, minimize or justify these extrajudicial executions, “the government of Nigeria must...condemn the killings publicly and make it clear that those responsible will be held accountable”.



When Human Rights Watch wrote its report on the massacres, Obasanjo boasted that he “dismissed the report with the contempt it deserves”. He went on in an interview with the Financial Times of April 9, 2002 to justify sending the soldiers on that mission and supported their action by declaring that when you send in soldiers, “they do not go on a picnic”, proclaiming that “in human nature, reaction is always more than the action”. A few weeks after the killings, Obasanjo was being welcomed by President George W Bush in the White House. At a joint press conference in the Rose Garden, Obasanjo unashamedly defended his actions before a shocked world.



From Kano to Kaduna to Jos, Obasanjo’s tenure witnessed the bloodiest peacetime inter-communal clashes in Nigeria . As strong suspicions grew that these clashes were instigated mainly by members of the new political class, especially top members of Obasanjo-led PDP, Obasanjo himself came out to claim he knew those sponsoring the mayhem. But the nation waited forlornly and hopelessly for him to name or institute prosecution against these people. Despite the thousands of lives senselessly lost in these carnages, not one single person has been prosecuted or convicted. Barely three years into his first 4-yeartenure, Obasanjo was asked how he felt about the fact that more than10,000 Nigerians have lost their lives through these politically instigated communal clashes on CNN (aired September 17, 2002) and his response was to imply that 10,000 people dying in a population of over 120 million shouldn’t be a big deal!



While political assassination perforated the reign of General Sani Abacha and largely accounted for the contempt in which he was held worldwide, Obasanjo surpassed the morbid record of the Goggled One in this regard, not only by the sheer number or the manner of their death, but also in the calibre of people that were assassinated. Still western leaders were falling over themselves to welcome him to their capitals, making him a fixture in high level conferences discussing African developmental needs.



Two days before Christmas in 2001, Bola Ige, a political rival to Obasanjo but at the time an uneasy ally, who held the important portfolio of Attorney-General and Minister of Justice in Obasanjo’s cabinet, was gunned down in broad daylight in his own home in Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria. In a macabre dance of the absurd, Ige’s death was played out in the full glare of the nation. But his blood was still warm when Obasanjo and his party rewarded those strongly suspected of his murder with political power.



On March 5, 2003, Dr Marshall Harry, who used to belong to Obasanjo’s party, but who defected to the All Nigeria People’s Party (ANPP) and posed a great obstacle to Obasanjo’s agenda in the South-south region as vice chairman of his new party kissed the dust. The man was murdered in his own home in Abuja in circumstances that suggested the involvement of highly trained assassins with military background. The killers stayed for almost two hours in the house trying to get the man, who at a point came out on his balcony to cry for help while the men battered his reinforced door and cut through his ceiling. His house was just a few meters from the Police Command of the Federal Capital Territory , yet no help came.



On Feb 6, 2004, Harry’s kinsman, Aminosoari Dikibo, a national vice chairman of Obasanjo’s party was shot dead on his way to a zonal meeting of his party in Asaba. At the time, he belonged to a rival faction to Obasanjo within the party, was seriously opposed to his meddling in Anambra State and openly supported the Obasanjo-embattled Chris Ngige. Two days after the man’s death, before the police could say anything, Obasanjo peremptorily informed the nation that Dikibo was killed by armed-robbers. This was despite the fact that those who killed the man on the road did not take any valuable or money from him. Of course, Obasanjo’s claim was met with national uproar and suspicion. How did he know Dikibo was killed by armed-robbers that soon when the police were yet to come up with anything? Why is he pointing to that direction if not to divert attention from the real source(s) of the man’s death? Like Ige and Harry, Funsho Williams, PDP’s front-runner for the Lagos State governorship slot met his death in the hands of daring assassins in his own home on July 27, 2006. They came in, tied him up, brutalized, stabbed and strangled him.

Apart from the above, we had the cases of Alabi Hassan-Olajokun, a financier of the Alliance for Democracy in the western states; Dr Ayodeji Daramola, a governorship aspirant in Ekiti State; the activist pilot, Jerry Agbeyegbe; the fiery journalist, Godwin Agbroko; Andrew Agom, a member of the PDP Board of Trustees; Jesse Aruku, a governorship aspirant in Plateau State; Ahmed Pategi, PDP Chairman in Kwara State, Ogbonnaya Uche, ANPP senatorial candidate for Orlu and many more.

In all these cases, the killers made sure they left no one in doubt that these were political murders meant to send a message to certain other elements within the system committed to serious democratic party politics. Indeed, there are those who believe the murders were not unconnected with Obasanjo’s self-perpetuation agenda, as, by this time, his pet “Third Term” project was already in full swing. Curiously, since his Third Term plan was shot down by Nigerians, the political assassinations have stopped as well. Needless to say, these murders remain unresolved till this day. Prof Wole Soyinka, the Nobel Laureate said it best when he described Obasanjo-led PDP as “a nest of killers”.

Not surprisingly, such a regime couldn’t have been sustained without massive corruption, which he spearheaded even as president. Obasanjo’s way of fighting democratic battles within the National Assembly was through massive bribery. For instance, when in 2002, there was uproar for his impeachment following the massacres at Odi, Zaki Biam and so on(amongst 16 other charges), he used money to buy over the legislator sand made sure they didn’t get the needed numbers. At one point, Obasanjo’s bribe money was displayed on the floor of the National Assembly publicly.

Indeed, Obasanjo’s well-known corrupt dealings are legion and it would be a boldfaced lie for those who parade him within the international community today as a worthy statesman to claim they have no idea. The series of revelations of the huge corrupt dealings that pervaded the comatose power sector throughout Obasanjo’s tenure have his imprints all over them. In March 2008, the National Assembly indicted him for supposedly spending $2.2 billion on power without due process. The Transcorp shares, the Obasanjo Library Fund, the COJA contracts, the PTDF scandal, the Siemens bribe scandal, the oil contracts and oil wells allocation done directly by Obasanjo who also doubled as Petroleum Resources minister are all tips of the iceberg. Obasanjo ran Nigeria aground and, when it was obvious to him that his Third Term bid has failed, he vengefully imposed on the nation the seriously sick brother of his late friend, Shehu Musa Yar’Adua as president.

For Obasanjo, Umaru Yar’Adua is the pliable tool he needed to make his getaway. He ensured that the election that brought him in was the worst in the nation’s history. He introduced the principle of “do or die” politics and used the security forces and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to intimidate anyone in the way of his designs. Indeed, he personally supervised the maiming, killing and sheer robbery that ensured Yar’Adua was put there. Nigerians today still groan under Obasanjo’s dastard legacy. The term ‘failed leader’ cannot begin to do justice enough to his legacy, yet those who direct affairs of the international community continue to embrace him as some kind of African messiah, pushing him in the forefront of anything Africa. Today, they have inflicted him on the Congo – a man whose legacy of death, mayhem and spectacular failure has knocked Nigeria into comatose is being depended on to provide a pathway to peace in the Congo ! Talk about pie in the flaming sky!



The United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon and the international community who are entrusting Obasanjo with the task of bringing peace to the Congo are perhaps seduced by his glib talk. They probably think as one of the oldest and longest serving former ruler of an important African country and a former military leader who as a young officer served in Congo, he would command more respect from the warring factions there. Well, all they need to jolt them to reality is to think of Liberia. Obasanjo’s policies in Liberia made things worse by enabling his genocidal friend, Charles Taylor, who, when the international community finally decided enough was enough, found refuge in Obasanjo’s abode. The man had to be virtually prised away from his hands to stand trial for crimes against humanity. No one should be surprised. What bind them are not only cheap Liberian women, they are kindred spirits who hunt and kill innocents together!



Lastly, it’s important that the world should get an idea of the kind of father Obasanjo is. Just as Nigerians ushered in the New Year in 2008, they were greeted with the shocking and debasing news that Gbenga Obasanjo, the ex-president’s own son, has accused his father of having sexual relations with his wife, Mojishola Obasanjo. The younger Obasanjo was stating this in court papers, asking for the dissolution of the marriage. A nonplussed nation waited for general Obasanjo to deny this publicly. He didn’t, neither did the lady. Gbenga insisted: “I know for a fact that my father had sexual relationship with Moji due to her greed to curry favour and contracts from him in his capacity as President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.” The divorce was granted on those grounds and its now there in public record that General Olusegun Obasanjo, who has a reputation as a lecherous man of insatiable sexual appetite, slept with his son’s wife!



The Nigeria Liberty Forum considers it a public duty to stop people like Obasanjo representing Africa anywhere, because he represents the same failed face of Africa .We cannot afford for different versions of Mobutu, Idi Amin, Bokassa, Conteh, Marcias Nguema and their ilk representing us at a time the world is yearning for genuine leadership. Obasanjo has the traits of the worst tyrants in Africa, but he seems to have the international community under his spell. They overlook his indiscretions and scandalous crimes and shower him with credibility when he should be cooling his heels in jail or hiding away in one remote corner of the world, far, far from civilization!



Not too curiously, the increasingly retrogressive authorities of the London School of Economics have equally fallen under his spell. They have since revoked all accreditations given to press men for the event and have requested that the Nigeria Liberty Forum pass whatever message it has through them to Obasanjo, all in an attempt to keep the public away. Well, it’s not going to happen, because the world must know who Obasanjo is. We can speak for ourselves in any public space and we can do so via a peaceful protest. Obasanjo is a monster not a statesman and no amount of lipstick or make-up will change him from who he is. We know him and every decent citizen of our world needs to know him for who he truly is as well.



Long Live the United Kingdom!



Long Live the Federal Republic of Nigeria!





Signed: Kayode Ogundamisi

Convenor, Nigeria Liberty Forum



To join NLF UK , send an email to nlibertyforum@googlemail.com



Telephone (Daytime): +447951402986 (Evening): +442030150739

http://www.thenewblackmagazine.com/view.aspx?index=1866

https://www.nairaland.com/792619/obj-looted-200bn-devalued-naira/4