Nigeria has recovered over $311 million of the alleged stolen funds by the country’s former military ruler, General Sani Abacha, from the United States and Jersey. This was disclosed by the Attorney General’s office on Monday, April 4, 2020.
In the statement, which was signed by the Special Assistant on Media and Public relations to the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Dr Umar Gwandu, Malami, he said that the amount increased significantly from about $308 million mentioned in the earlier statement to over $311 million, as a result of interest that accrued from February 3 to April 28, when the fund was transferred to the Central Bank of Nigeria.
Malami pointed out that the litigation process for the return of the assets started in 2014, while the diplomatic process that led to the signing of the Asset Return Agreement began in 2018.
This agreement was signed on February 3 by the governments of Nigeria, the United States and the Bailiwick of Jersey. The minister noted that the agreement is based on international law and cooperation measures that set out the procedures for the repatriation, transfer, disposition and management of the assets.
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It would be recalled that in March 2020, there were reports that the United States Government was stalling on the repatriation of the funds from the British Island of Jersey. This was after an agreement had been earlier signed among the three parties in February 2020 for the repatriation of the looted funds.
The agreement was signed by Mark Temple, the Solicitor General and Attorney General Designate of Jersy, Brian Benczkowski, a Deputy Assistant Attorney on behalf of the United States and Abubakar Malami, Nigeria’s Attorney General.