Banks in Switzerland have returned $290m of money found in accounts linked to the former Nigerian dictator Sani Abacha. 
Another $170m will follow once the assets have been converted into cash.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4230884.stm

Switzerland on Friday gave the green light for the return to Nigeria of 290 million US dollars in funds seized in accounts linked to the late dictator, Sani Abacha.

This is part of the sum that Abacha plundered from the west African country and deposited in Swiss banks between 1993 and the time of his death in 1998.
http://english.people.com.cn/200509/10/eng20050910_207699.html

What's your take on this issue? The amount of money involved seems so small to me, compared to our excess crude oil earnings of $10 billion, for example.

Whether they return the funds or not. It seems useless. We've had better deals in the past, same story. Always misappropriated.
If this was going to translate to "bettering" the lives of the masses...'twould have been better. But under this administration, thats seems more like day dreaming.

this is rubbish. Just goes to show you what thives this europeans are, but the media wont show this. The fact is this man stole, with their collusion, much more than they are returning.

They have some never asking for how it will be spent. How was it helping nigeria when they helped abacha put the money in thier banks

So much for transparency.
They 'll never admit they are crooks.

the swiss cant just hand it over. anyway, nigeria needs to eb more proactive about seizing assets. it is so easy to seize assets today from any country in the world. nigeria just needs to step up to the plate and seize all those 419ers assets in the caymans and then other crooks.