Falana Asks Abdulsalami to Retract ‘Abacha Never Looted’ Claim, Resign from Peace Committee

Wale Igbintade

Human rights lawyer and Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Femi Falana, has called on former Head of State, General Abdulsalami Abubakar (retd.), to resign as Chairman of the National Peace Committee over his recent claim that the late General Sani Abacha never looted Nigeria’s treasury.

Falana also urged the former military ruler to withdraw the statement and apologise to Nigerians, arguing that it contradicts official records, the findings of investigations conducted under Abdulsalami’s administration and a decree he personally signed authorising the forfeiture of assets allegedly looted by the late military leader and his associates.

In a statement titled “Re: Abdulsalami Abubakar: Abacha Never Looted Treasury,” Falana accused Abdulsalami of attempting to rewrite history by portraying the much-publicised “Abacha loot” as money legitimately saved for Nigeria rather than proceeds of corruption.

The senior lawyer was reacting to an interview published by The Sun newspaper, in which Abdulsalami maintained that Abacha did not steal public funds.

According to the former Head of State, the funds recovered from foreign accounts were deliberately set aside to protect Nigeria’s finances in the event that international sanctions led to the freezing of the country’s accounts.

Abdulsalami claimed that the decision was taken on the advice of former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, former Benin Republic President Mathieu Kérékou and other African leaders.

Rejecting the explanation, Falana said Abdulsalami himself ordered an investigation into allegations of looting during the Abacha regime shortly after assuming office in 1998.

He recalled that on July 23, 1998, Abdulsalami constituted a Special Investigation Panel (SIP), headed by Deputy Commissioner of Police Peter Gana, to probe corruption and financial misconduct during the Abacha administration.

According to Falana, the panel’s report, released in November 1998, uncovered extensive diversion of public funds allegedly involving officials of the Central Bank of Nigeria, members of the Abacha family and their associates.

The report, he said, found that Abacha approved fictitious requests for security operations and equipment procurement submitted by the National Security Adviser, after which the Central Bank released huge sums in United States dollars and British pounds.

The cash was allegedly transferred to members of the Abacha family and business associates, while substantial amounts were used to acquire properties in several Nigerian cities.

Falana noted that Abdulsalami accepted the findings of the panel and subsequently promulgated the Forfeiture of Assets, Etc. (Certain Persons) Decree No. 53 of 1999, which authorised the forfeiture of assets traced to Abacha, his family members and close associates.

He said the decree led to the forfeiture of more than $636 million, £75.3 million, 30 million Deutsche Marks, N547 million, 30 per cent shares in two Sierra Leonean refineries valued at $380,000, as well as numerous properties in Lagos, Abuja, Kano and Zaria and several official vehicles.

According to Falana, the decree expressly declared that the listed funds and properties had been “acquired corruptly and illegally” and vested them in the Federal Government.

He also dismissed Abdulsalami’s suggestion that part of the funds was used to procure Tata vehicles for security agencies, citing the conviction of Raj Bhojwani, a business associate of Abacha, by a court in Jersey for money laundering and the forfeiture of $45 million to the Nigerian government.

Falana further recalled that successive administrations relied on the findings of the Special Investigation Panel to recover additional Abacha assets across several jurisdictions.

He noted that former President Olusegun Obasanjo engaged Swiss lawyer Enrico Monfrini to trace Abacha assets abroad, leading to the recovery of at least $1.2 billion.

He added that further recoveries were made under the administrations of former Presidents Goodluck Jonathan and Muhammadu Buhari, while litigation over some assets is still ongoing, including a case in the United States where a serving Nigerian minister is reportedly laying claim to $130 million recovered from the Abacha loot.

Falana also recalled that France announced in November 2023 that it would repatriate another $150 million traced to Abacha and frozen since 2021, subject to an agreement that the funds would be used for development projects benefiting Nigerians.

He maintained that no court or government involved in asset recovery proceedings in Nigeria, Switzerland, France, the United States, the United Kingdom or Jersey had ever accepted the argument that the recovered funds were official Nigerian reserves kept outside the country.

Instead, he said, members of the Abacha family and their associates unsuccessfully sought to establish personal ownership of the assets.

Describing Abdulsalami’s recent remarks as an attempt to sanitise the Abacha regime, Falana insisted that the former military ruler could not deny the existence of the Abacha loot after establishing the investigative panel, accepting its findings and signing the decree declaring the assets to have been acquired corruptly and illegally.

He therefore called on Abdulsalami to withdraw his comments, apologise to Nigerians and step down as Chairman of the National Peace Committee, arguing that his attempt to recast the history of the Abacha era has diminished the moral authority required for the sensitive national assignment.

To support his position, Falana attached a copy of the Forfeiture of Assets, Etc. (Certain Persons) Decree No. 53 of 1999, which he said conclusively demonstrates that the recovered funds and properties were officially declared to have been acquired corruptly and illegally.