Twelve years after former Head of State, the late General Sani Abacha died, his bosom friend and associate, Lieutenant General Jeremiah Useni, has said that what he was alleged to have looted from the treasure is not close to what ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo’s aides took from the national treasury.

According to Useni, who was the Minister of Federal Capital territory in the Abacha government, “I don’t think Abacha looted the treasury the way they have painted it.

Abacha had money before he even became head of state. His father was a businessman and he (Abacha) was very careful with money. I worked with him and I know how stingy he was when it comes to spending money. He held on to money properly. Despite all the things they say about Abacha, nobody has ever said that this is the money Abacha took and this was where he took the money.

“They will be talking about the children or some associates of the children. Every time, Abacha family, Abacha family, Abacha family and now we are seeing that what they said of Abacha family cannot be compared to even some aides that worked under Obasanjo. These are aides, not even head of state, not even ministers.”
Useni defended Abacha, who died on June 8, 1998, saying that he was a good leader. “Abacha was never a dictator. I think people are just trying to rubbish him. If he were a dictator, what will you say of Obasanjo?”
Speaking on the nation’s development, Useni said: “Obasanjo brought misery to many people and spoilt democracy. Obasanjo moved the nation backward at a very high speed. Yar’Adua slowed the speed and now, Goodluck has been able to stop it and trying to move forward now.”
He spoke on these and many other thought-provoking issues.

MORE: http://www.sunnewsonline.com/webpages/news/national/2010/june/05/national-05-06-2010-001.htm

Obasanjo stole at least 10 times what Abacha stole.

Obasanjo stole more than IBB and Abacha put together.

Do you judge who did evil the most or who did good ones? They both looted money so they did the same crime

High_flyer:

Do you judge who did evil the most or who did good ones? They both looted money so they did the same crime

Exactly what was on my mind.

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and still the best . . . . right??

i dont think i can believe this, Abacha was not as Dumb! as Obj, saying Abacha's loot was monolithic is an understatement

, And still stealing in govt.

obasanjo is still stealing. i don't know any president who killed like obasanjo. i don't know of any president who imposed rulers on us like obasanjo.
wow! an attorney general of the federation was murdered without trace under obasanjo.
a whole ship lost without trace only under obasanjo.
obasanjo is as good as a dog since he cld sleep with his son's wife.
abacha was a saint.

Vanity upon vanity, all is vanity. All the looters of our treasury will be buried naked. So, where will all the wealth be? To be enjoyed by those who are not noted (or abused) as looters. Funny life!

Useni is a big liar.money stolen by military are not always traced but the little Abacha stole is ok to sustain his generations to come.i remember when his wife was reacting to the laundered money that was repatriated from swiss bank and she said,no matter how much is retrieved from the abachas,they can never be poor like dangote.when i heard that,i layed to rest that abacha really ruin this country.the debt that was later cancelled came from abacha and ibb regime.where did all those money go to.let useni come and explain that.

OBJ, IBB and Abacha all looted the government treasury and they must be probed. The same applies to all past political office holders in Nigeria. If we can recover all the money that past politicians looted, Nigeria would be the richest country in the world.

Arrant nonsense! Abacha was a kleptomaniac, the scumbag talking was a part of the thieving cult that laundered money for that irredeemable klepto. Obj was corrupt no doubt and a lot of his aids took advantage of the free for all spree but pls don't make phoney attempt at any comparison with that monster that stole in the tune of billion dollars.

Abacha was there once while Obj twice.

Abacha is having ever lasting sleep, while Obj only sleeps at social functions.

They both looted.

It is common knowledge that OBJ looted at least $16bn and I suspect possibly it could be as high as $40bn.

So it won't surprise me if what Useni said is true.

GenBuhari:

It is common knowledge that OBJ looted at least $16bn and I suspect possibly it could be as high as $40bn.

So it won't surprise me if what Useni said is true.

and how much did abacha steal ?

GenBuhari
You are making a big mistake, the alleged amount is in naira not dollar, besides Naija no get that kind cash wey dem go steal like that. I repeat again, OBJ is a rogue but he pales in comparison Klepto Abacha. .

@ rymes
I have not made any mistake.
It is definitely $16bn that was clearly unaccounted for Obj power project.

As bad as Abacha has been made out to be, (I am not condoning him oooh! he was ver bad) Nigerians were better off during Abacha's leadership than we were during Obasanjo's tenure.

Consider life expectancy: this remained more or less unchanged during Abacha's regime.
Life expectancy was significantly lowered during Obj's government.

GehBUHARY
Are we not talking about the mismanaged PTDF funds here? Get Ur facts right, it is 16billion Naira not dollars. It is pointless arguing this, google it up.

This may be true.We will soon get to know how much when his children are out of position. Quote me

@ Rymes
Obj definately budgetted $16bn for power and has not accounted for it.

This $16bn was only the tip of the iceberg, he stole a lot more billions privatising refineries and selling them to his companies.

This man Obj is so corrupt, Iam certain Abacha's coruption was child's play in comparision.