[b]Abacha served Nigeria well, say Buhari, Abdulsalami[/b]

* He did not loot treasury, Babangida declares

From Adamu Abuh (Kano) and Kodilinye Obiagwu (Lagos)

TWO former heads of state and a military president yesterday rose in stout defence of their late colleague, Gen. Sani Abacha.


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The former rulers are Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar, and Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, who served in the Abacha regime as chairman of the defunct Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF) declared that there was no basis for accusing Abacha of corruption.

Buhari's successor, who styled himself as military president, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida and Abubakar also spoke in the same vein.

The Generals spoke yesterday in Kano barely a week after Abacha's widow, Mrs. Maryam, said there was no basis for accusing her husband of corruption.

According to Buhari: "All the allegations levelled against the personality of the late Gen. Sani Abacha will remain allegations. It is 10 years now, things should be over by now."

He added that rather than maligning Abacha, the late ruler deserved to be praised for initiating developmental ideas that moved the country forward.

Buhari, who was the presidential candidate of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) in the 2007 polls said: "When Gen. Sani Abacha came into power, he did four major things, which Nigerians will continue to remember him for." "He came up with the idea of incorporating state governors into the National Council of State, he set up a tribunal to check unethical practices by banks and he also set up the Petroleum Trust Fund, which every Nigerian benefitted from its activities."

Buhari said the PTF ensured hundreds of roads, medical and educational facilities were constructed across the country.

He spoke with reporters in Kano at the 10th anniversary prayer session for Abacha. According to him, Nigerians are still reaping the fruits of PTF till date.

Also at the event, Babangida described Mrs. Maryam Abacha as a courageous woman, adding that the allegations levelled against the former head of state were unfounded and baseless.

He said: "It is not true that he looted public treasury, I knew who Abacha was because I was close to him."

Babangida specifically eulogised Abacha for initiating the Vision 2010, which he remarked was still a reference point for Nigeria's economic and political transformation.

Abdulsalami, who fielded questions from reporters at the occasion, faulted allegations of wrongdoing levelled against Abacha.

He said: "It is quite unfortunate and unfair to accuse the family of the late Sani Abacha of looting public funds. But now, we have been seeing what is happening. Whether we like it or not, Gen. Abacha has done a lot for this country.

"Lots have been done wrongly in the past. What should be done was not done, but we are hoping that subsequent administrations would build up positively from where the previous governments stopped."

Besides the three former military leaders who graced the prayer session at the Gidado home of the Abachas, there were hundreds of well-wishers, including the Emir of Gumel, Alhaji Ahmed Sani, Emir of Ringim, Alhaji Sayyadi Muhammadu Ringim, Sarkin Jama'a, Alhaji Muhammadu Isa The Great Prophet and the Sa'in Daura, Alhaji Ahmad Daura.

Among the issues that have remained controversial in the allegations of corruption against Abacha are the question of how much he actually looted and how much of it the administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo recovered.

The chase for what became known as the "Abacha loot "has taken Nigeria to Switzerland and London where many foreign accounts allegedly owned by Abacha have been uncovered.

Last month, the Swiss government said it has returned all monies stolen by Abacha to Nigeria.

Giving a breakdown of the monies returned, the Charge d'Affairs of the Embassy of Switzerland, Mr. Fabio Baiardi, at a recent press conference in Abuja, said that a first instalment of $290 million was transferred on September 1, 2005, a second instalment of $168 million on December 19, 2005 and $40 million was transferred at the end of January 2006.

Findings from a joint initiative of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and the World Bank, the Stolen Asset Recovery (STAR) indicate that $505.5 million have been recovered from the Swiss authorities as part of the Abacha loot.

The monies stolen by Abacha is estimated to be between $3 billion and $5 billion. A total of about $1.3 billion may have been recovered. Of this amount, $800 million has been recovered from domestic institutions before $505.5 million was retrieved from the Swiss government.

In 2002, Obasanjo admitted that it was a hard decision for him to enter a compromise deal with the Abacha family to refund over $1 billion or 80 per cent of their liquid asset in exchange for freedom from litigation.

The former President told a news magazine in May 2002 that lawyers were on the deal for over two years. He said: "The first thing we did was to be able to freeze the Abacha family's loot where we were able to get the co-operation of the judiciary and governments of those countries. And what we were able to freeze in real cash and par bonds was close to $2 billion.

"We fought a case in London and we got $150 million or thereabouts released, about 300 million Deutschmark. Then there were little ones like $20 million by another group and that kind of thing.

"That case in London, for instance, cost us (to maintain our lawyer) a little bit over $1 million. The Abacha family's lawyer was paid over $12 million. They were able to pay that because it is not their money. It's your money and my money. But what the lawyer wanted on their side was to go on endlessly and they can do that almost for ever.

"So, our lawyers came and said: 'Well you have a choice to make. We got to a situation where we can get about $1.2 billion and the Abacha family may be $100 million and par bonds of about $300 million. But the value will be about 50 per cent of that because it matures in the future.

"So, you have to decide whether to go for this or continue with the litigation. And that's one of the hardest decisions I have to make in my life because I know that the Abacha family hadn't legitimately done any work to deserve $100 million.

"But should I go ahead to recover $1.2 billion of Nigeria's money or go to tell Nigerians that we are fighting this case and 25, 30 years from now you wouldn't get anything. So, when I thought about it, I said well at the end of the day, I had to explain to Nigerians.

"Even the Financial Times said this is a model for any country to follow because no nation has been able to achieve as much as that or anything close to that. So, I'm proud of what we have been able to achieve," Obasanjo said.

The out-of-court settlement, which according to a report, was worked on by the then Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Mr. Kanu Agabi (SAN) was supposed to see the Abacha family surrender $1.2 billion.

The family was allowed to keep $100 million and par bonds worth $300 million.

In the controversy surrounding the return of the loot, former Minister of Defence under Obasanjo, Lt.-Gen Theophilus Yakubu Danjuma, has accused fthe immediate past former President of entangling himself in efforts to vilify Abacha. He had asked, "where is the so-called Abacha loot?"


http://odili.net/news/source/2008/jun/9/14.html

I guess the $2.2 billion that was recovered was monopoly money then. Oh well what else can you expect from these guys, their not exactly reputable sources of news or have good judgment of character. Birds of the same feather flock together.

well he did, just like Babangida , Abdulsalami, Anini and the rest of them.

we all are grateful.

the statement shows that Buhari is not fit to rule nigeria.For IBB iam not surprised because he taught Abacha the game.Abdulsalami is confused.they are now telling us that money recovered was invested by Abacha but not stolen.What a shame'

Oh yes and he looted Nigeria well too muppets!

He actually bled Nigeria well

Buhari, Abdusalam and IBB are all humpty dumpty lapdogs who lack common sense!

fucking none-entities!

yes he served us well and he got what he deserved from us. adedibu served us well too and today God has answered the paryers of the masses. so all of them that are serving us well, we are parying for them and God will soon visit them all.

3 foolish generals one stupid dirty tongues!

yes he did, and benefited with billions of looted public money. On his anniversary was decleared a saint by fellow pen robbers.

even Anini is a saint.

chidichris:

yes he served us well and he got what he deserved from us. adedibu served us well too and today God has answered the paryers of the masses. so all of them that are serving us well, we are parying for them and God will soon visit them all.

AAAAMMMMEEEEENNNNNNNN

Talk of idle generals who have their brains underneath their feet