General Abacha, who ruled Nigeria for five years after a 1993 coup, is believed to be among the ranks of Congo’s Mobutu Sese Seko as one of Africa’s most avaricious looters in power. Investigation by WDNews reveal that the late military dictator, Gen. Sani Abacha pillaged the country’s coffers to the tune of $210 billion (N73.5 trillion, with the exchange rate at all time high of N350 per dollar), which is the country’s budget for approximately 13 years, using an annual budget of N6 trillion. Of that figure, past Nigerian governments have, in the last 11 years, received over $1 billion from the Swiss and American governments.



Monies recovered
Pioneer Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Malam Nuhu Ribadu, had in November 2006, in London, said that Gen. Sani Abacha looted over $6 billion from Nigeria and that $2 billion of the loot had been recovered.

This was still reiterated by former President Olusegun Obasanjo in his book titled “My Watch”, where he claimed he left in the national treasury over N287 billion, made up of $2bn, £100m and N10bn in cash and property, being the loot recovered from the late dictator, Gen. Abacha.

According to President Obasanjo, the funds were paid into the treasury through the Central Bank of Nigeria before he handed over power to the late President Umar Musa Yar’Adua on May 29, 2007.

He disclosed, “In total, by the time I left government in May 2007, over $2 billion and £100 million had been recovered from the Abacha family abroad, and well over N10 billion in cash and properties locally. All were paid to the public treasury through the Central Bank of Nigeria.

“By the time I left government, Enrico (Monfrini, a Swiss lawyer) told me that if he continued to get support for his work, there was still about $1 billion he believed could still be recovered from the Abacha family and cronies.”



The returns
Meanwhile, Switzerland has returned $723 million (about N142.43 billion) that the late Abacha stashed away in Swiss accounts and they are now set to return another $380 million, stolen by the dictator with the proviso that the Nigerian government will judiciously use the money to positively touch the lives of its citizenry.

Also, the Government of the Principality of Liechtenstein has repatriated $227million worth of loot stolen by Gen. Abacha in 2014. The State of Jersey in Channels Island has announced its readiness to return £315 million to Nigeria as part of funds recovered from the late dictator. The Island had earlier returned the sum of £140 million to Nigeria in two batches.

Reliable sources reveal that they were yet to uncover billions of dollars of Abacha’s humongous loot stashed away in offshore banks.

for more info:
http://wdn.com.ng/2016/03/21/abacha-loot-over-a-decade-of-budget-loot/