Former President Olusegun Obasanjo said he left in the
national treasury over N287bn, made up of $2bn, £100m
and N10bn in cash and property, being the loot recovered
from the late dictator, Gen. Sani Abacha.
Obasanjo left office as President in 2007 after serving two
terms of eight years and handed over to the now late former
President Umaru Yar’Adua.
The N287bn figure was arrived at using an average
exchange rate of N125.88 to a dollar in 2007 and an
average exchange rate of N247.99 to a pound in the same
year.
The former President said the funds were paid into the
treasury through the Central Bank of Nigeria.
Obasanjo’s revelation was contained in the Vol. II of his
memoir, My Watch. His take on the Abacha loot is slotted
under the sub-heading “Recovery of looted funds” on pages
494 and 495.
He said, “In total, by the time I left government in May 2007,
over $2bn and £100m had been recovered from the Abacha
family abroad, and well over N10bn in cash and properties
locally. All were paid to the public treasury through the
Central Bank.
“Enrico (Monfrini, a Swiss lawyer) told me by the time I left
government that if he continued to get support for his work,
there was still about $1bn he believed he could still recover
from the Abacha family and cronies.”
The former President said that there was a time he got a
report that £3m cash was seized from an agent of the late
military dictator by customs officials at an airport in UK and
that the British authorities asked the Nigerian government to
prove ownership of the money.
He said the British government however refused to release
the money to Nigeria despite showing details that it was
taken from the CBN.
“I went to London to have a meeting on another important
issue with (former British Prime Minister) Tony Blair and I
took the opportunity to raise the issue of the £3m, using the
Yoruba anecdote of the thief who stole palm oil from the
ceiling cupboard by getting somebody to help him so as not
to spill the red palm oil on himself or the floor. The man who
assisted became an accomplice. Tony got the message and
the £3m was released to Nigeria the following day,”
Obasanjo stated.
A former finance minister in the Obasanjo administration,
Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, told The PUNCH last year through
her Special Adviser on Communication, Mr. Paul
Nwabuikwu, that contrary to reports that the sum of $2bn
was recovered from the Abacha’s loot, only $500m was
recovered under her as Obasanjo’s finance minister.
The minister made the clarification amid differing figures on
the actual amount recovered.
For example, the pioneer Chairman of the Economic and
Financial Crimes Commission, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, had in
November 2006, in London, said Abacha looted over $6bn
from Nigeria and that $2bn of the loot had been recovered.
He mentioned same figure in the same month during the
12th International Anti-Corruption Conference in Guatemela
and later in Dakar, Senegal, at the 2nd Annual High Level
Dialogue on Governance and Democracy in Africa.
http://www.punchng.com/news/obasanjo-i-left-n287bn-abacha-loot-in-treasury/

Aiiyait....

OBJ baba, i hail oh!

nihrghcx

I thought someone here says Abacha was never corrupt. Besides, l think OBJ knows too much yet he can't explain hw 16 billion was spent on power without a corresponding boost in the sector. He needs go complete his jail term.