Abacha stole more than $1bn – SERAP

Civil Society Organisation, the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP), has said late military dictator, Sani Abacha, “stole far more than $1bn”.

SERAP stated this on Saturday in a two-part tweet in response to a statement by the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), that close to $1bn was “stolen under a previous, undemocratic junta in the 1990s”.

Buhari, in an article published in Newsweek, a United States-based magazine, expressed appreciation to the “friendly nations” that returned the stolen funds.

While the President curiously chose not to mention Abacha by name, it was apparent he was referring to the deceased dictator.

In his article, the retired major general stated that the country could move forward with the road, rail and power station construction, “partly under own resources, thanks to close to $1bn of funds stolen from the people of Nigeria under a previous, undemocratic junta in the 1990s that have now been returned to our country from the US, UK, and Switzerland”.

Reacting, SERAP urged Buhari to provide further clarification on the statement and “publish spending details on recovered assets by governments since 1999”.