Abacha Loot: Secret Deal GEJ Approved To Save Abacha’s Family From Prosecution

For allegedly helping their father plunder Nigeria of an estimated $5 billion in the 1990s, Mohammed and Abba Abacha, and other relatives of the late dictator, Sani Abacha, have been rewarded by the Nigerian government.

A secret deal between the government and the Abachas, wants the family to return part of the loot, in exchange for perpetual immunity against prosecution.

The deal, kept classified for months, was personally approved by President Goodluck Jonathan in July 2014, and jointly authored by the Attorney General, Mohammed Adoke.

The terms of the agreement, obtained by PREMIUM TIMES in March, have alarmed anti-corruption activists.
“The agreement is (also) a tragic triumph of impunity,” said The Berne Declaration, a Swiss nongovernmental organization, which for years has monitored efforts by the Nigerian government to recover hundreds of millions of dollars stashed by the former military ruler, and his family, in bank accounts across Europe, and America.

The agreement closes criminal proceedings for the plundering of the Nigerian treasury against the perpetrators and their accomplices, with the result that they go unpunished.

Foreign banks involved in the heist have also not been convicted of money laundering.
Worse, Swiss lawyers and other attorneys who helped facilitate the so-called out-of-court settlement, will pocket fees up to five per cent of all monies recovered from the family from banks in Switzerland and other countries. The government expressly agreed to pay one of the attorneys $28 million.

“This is all the more troubling because many of the banks involved have not been convicted of money laundering. It is equally incomprehensible that the Swiss lawyers involved may pocket up to 7 percent of the sum for their services, as this money belongs to the Nigerian population,” Berne Declaration said.

The base of the agreement is for the Abacha family to cooperate with federal authorities to have the stolen funds repatriated, in exchange for clemency.

On receipt of the assets, Nigeria will “end any and all legal proceedings and investigations against the settling parties (referring to the Abacha family)”.

The government will “recognise” properties owned by the family in Nigeria, the agreement says.
“The FRN (Federal Republic of Nigeria) will withdraw any and all civil proceedings against the settling parties,” one clause in the agreement states.

Another clause says, “The FRN will end, without any finding of liability or guilt, any and all proceedings of whatever kind including criminal, civil or administrative proceedings contemplated or pending in any court in Nigeria (including in relation to forfeiture and or restraint) relating to or arising out of any investigations into the resolved matter, …”.

“The FRN will provide to any government, authority or organisation, where necessary, information, clearance or such other documentation or support as may be required by any or all of the Settling Parties to ensure and guarantee unrestricted movement in and out of Nigeria or in any other state or country,” another clause adds.

As Nigeria’s military leader between 1993 and 1998, Mr. Abacha stashed away billions of dollars of public funds in various accounts abroad.
Transparency International estimates $5 billion was stolen.

The money include those in three accounts at HSBC Bank Plc, one in Standard Bank Plc in England; five accounts in Cítibank Private Bank of London; one account in Deutsche Bank International Ltd, in Jersey, United States; three accounts in Banque SBA SA and one in Standard Alliance Corporation in France.

There are also funds in nine accounts in Luxemburg and Liechtenstein totaling about $248.64 million and Euros179.14 million, which was transferred to the Bank for International Settlements (BI) in 2014.

In June 2014, Liechtenstein agreed to return $227m, while the U.S. froze some $458m hidden by Abacha in bank accounts.
Switzerland had earlier returned some $700m. By March 2015, the country agreed to return a further $380m.
The recovery of the money had been blocked by legal action brought by companies linked to members of the Abacha family.

The government’s initial charges against Abacha’s oldest son, Mohammed Abacha, was for unlawfully receiving government money from his father.
The Nigerian government agreed to the secret deal as a sort of plea bargain, to have the Abacha family drop its case, and allow the money to be repatriated.
Geneva prosecutors had also closed their own case against the Abacha.
Anti-corruption activists argue that granting immunity to those who helped in stealing the country blind will only embolden others to do worse.
They also question why the Nigerian government failed to lay clearly as part of the agreement how recovered money will be applied from the benefit of Nigerians.
“The agreement between Nigeria and the Abacha family, approved by the Public Prosecutor in Geneva, does not contain a single provision to ensure that the returned money will be of benefit to the Nigerian people from whom it was stolen in the nineties and who continue to suffer endemic corruption,” Bernes Declaration said.

“The entire arrangement is questionable,” said David Ugolor of the Africa Network for Environment and Economic Justice. “We must let Switzerland see the need to suspend further decision on the return of the money stolen by Abacha until all the terms are clearly established in a manner that would really benefit Nigerians.”

Anchored by Attorney General Adoke, the agreement compels the Federal Government to withdraw all pending cases against any member of the Abacha family at home and abroad, while all organs of government, including the National Assembly, were barred from asking questions with the intention of recovering the stolen wealth.

Also, the deal forbids the government from taking any action to limit the constitutional rights, including freedom of movement of the Abachas within and outside Nigeria and right to property, in connection with the theft.

Mohammed and Abba Abacha represented the Abacha family in the negotiations, which also involved international brokers.
Mr. Adoke represented Nigeria on the instructions of President Jonathan.

“I hereby confirm that the Honourable Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Mohammed Adoke SAN CFR, has full authority to contract in that capacity in relation to the Repatriation Agreement between the Federal Republic of Nigeria and Alhaji Mohammed Sani Abacha and Alhaji Abba Abacha,” the president wrote.

As part of the agreement, Nigeria will pay four per cent of the sums recovered and repatriated to Nigeria to Swiss agent, Enrico Monfrini of Monfrini, Crettol & Associe, which also entitled to another $5 million for litigation expenses.

Another 2.8 percent of the recovered or repatriated sum was agreed to be paid Christian Luscher of CMS Von Erlach Poncet Ltd (subject to a cap of $28million), while the Abacha are expected to settle the legal fees of their appointed agent, Nicola Boulton, of Byrne and Partners of London.

TEN POINTS TO SAVE NIGERIA ECONOMY

Ten Places Buhari Can Get A Trillion Naira By Rudolf Ogoo Okonkwo

President-elect Muhammadu Buhari needs N1 trillion naira on May 29, 2015 or within his first 90 days in office.

Clearly, nobody is pretending anymore that Nigeria is not broke. President Jonathan’s finance minister/the coordinating minister of the economy, Mrs. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has given up any pretense that she has a clue as to how to rescue Nigeria’s economy from total collapse. Recently, she confessed that sourcing where to borrow money has been more than a nightmare. In her own words, it has been causing her hypertension.

And borrowing, she had been doing with alacrity. The Central Bank of Nigeria recently announced that the federal government has over-spent by N365.3bn between July-Dec 2014. The minister herself announced that, "We've borrowed N473bn out of the N882bn we are allowed to borrow this year.” So there is no room to borrow a lot more. And borrowing to pay workers’ salaries and pay oil marketers for oil subsidy is as dumb as throwing bags of money into River Niger.

Meanwhile, Nigeria’s debt profile has risen to N12 trillion, which is about three times our annual budget.

Despite the staggering debt ratio to the size of Nigeria’s economy, Nigeria still needs to pay workers. And since President Jonathan and Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala decided to include only about N150 billion in the 2015 budget for oil subsidy, when in the last four years they have spent an average of N800 billion a year, there is an urgent need for money to keep the basic elements of the economy going as the new government settles in.

The Nigerian workers cannot go for another three months without pay. The consequences of that for the new government will be dire. And the Nigerian consumers of petrol cannot go for another three months of long lines at gas stations and live with fuel sold at exorbitant prices. And that will continue until oil marketers are paid the outstanding debt owed them or someone figured out how to stop them from holding Nigeria hostage.

In the last 16 years of the People’s Democratic Party rule, the political class squandered an equivalent of $500 billion US dollars. To go back to find the books, including those already reduced to ashes, open them, separate the scratched off figures from the original figures and prosecute those whose fingerprints were on the record books would be a difficult task. An easier way would be a mixture of plea-bargains, fees, surcharges, amnesties and luxury taxes imposed on these categories of past and present officials, all aimed at recovering a fraction of our commonwealth fleeced over the last 16 years.

So here are the top ten places President Jonathan can get N1 trillion naira.

1.) Go to the 36 governors that served with Olusegun Obasanjo from 1999 - 2007. Offer them immunity from prosecution if they will all return N2.5 billion naira each for every four years in power. Those who spent eight years in office should return N5 billion each. After all, most of them were facing charges totaling over N100 billion before their files disappeared from the EFCC. That will give President Buhari N180 billion naira.

2.) Go to the 36 governors that served with Umaru Ya’Adua and Goodluck Jonathan from 2007 - 2015. Offer them immunity from prosecution if they will all return N5 billion naira each for every four years in power. Those who spent eight years in office should return N10 billion each. After all, most of them collected over N2.5 bn each year as security votes. That will give President Buhari N360 billion naira.

3.) President Buhari should cancel all import waivers given to religious leaders in Nigeria for 2015. Nigeria lost billions of naira just on the waivers given to Pastors Adeboye, Oyedepo, Oritsejafor and their likes under the Obasanjo-Jonathan administration - waivers they used to import expensive cars and luxury goods. Who knows what the big Imams get in waivers? Right there, another N50 billion will be readily available.

4.) A 50% cut in the salaries and allowances of members of the Nigerian House of Representative. At $1.4 million each for 360 members, Buhari can easily get $252 million dollars, which is over N40 billion. In the senate, with 109 senators each making $1.7 million, a 50% cut in their pay package will give President Buhari over N14.8 billion naira.

5.) President Buhari should audit the record books of the government with oil importers. A good auditing firm will easily unearth stolen wealth of the nation. Past audits have shown substantial stealing on their part. In a 2012 audit conducted by Mr. Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede of the subsidy claims of 2011, discovered that the Federal Government had overpaid importers and marketers of petrol by a whopping N430 billion naira. Of this amount, less than N30 billion was ever recovered. Since these so-called cabals are friends of every government in power, the president should just ask them to refund N300 billion and we will let bygones be bygone.

6.) The president should, as a matter of urgency, investigate and evaluate all workers associated with the importation of fuel into Nigeria. Those found wanting should be prosecuted and fired. A good investigation of their assets and accounts will recover at least N10 billion. The same thing should be done with staff of the NNPC, both those serving and the retired staff. A good investigation will net over N10 billion.

7.) Go to all the ministers who served from 1999-2015. Depending on the ministry they manned, how long they manned the ministry and the budget of each ministry, each minister would be assessed. A special surcharge of each minister could net the government another N50 billion.

8.) The security votes of all state governors should be cut by 50%. At an average of N300 million a month, it runs up to N3.6 billion for a year each. For the 36 state governors, that amount is N129.6 billion naira. A 50% cut will give President Buhari N64.8 billion a year.

9.) The president should close half of Nigerian missions abroad in a major scale back and find other countries to manage Nigeria’s consular affairs. That will save at least N10 billion.

10.) Along with that, the government will impose a significant luxury tax on people who own private jets, luxury boats and those who own houses worth over N0.5 billion naira. If you may, just call it one-time tax to help feed Nigerian public school children. Let us see the billionaire that will grumble about giving a little back to help educate the disadvantaged. That will bring in another N100 billion.

Putting the savings together, we have N1.19 trillion for the President. That will be enough seed money to give the incoming government a breathing room to assess the damage done to the economy in the last 16 years.

Alternatively, President Buhari could move in security forces to the Niger Delta and stop crude oil theft. Since 2009, crude oil thieves have been increasing the amount of Nigeria’s oil that they steal. According to the 2012 Ribadu Report, crude oil thieves steal over 100,000 barrels a day. That is over $3.6 billion dollars a year. Some foreign sources put the figure of oil theft at 250,000 barrels a day. Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala in 2013 told the Vanguard newspaper that the loss to oil theft could be up to $12 billion.

Now, that is over a trillion naira. QED!