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.



Credits- Punch NP