Obasanjo - $1bn Abacha loot lying in Swiss bank when I left office

Afrik Update

News,NIGERIA

by Chris Agbambu and Ebenezer Adurokiya

                                           Sanni Abacha(L) Olusegun Obasanjo(R)

                       

         US reveals how Halliburton money was shared

There is at least one billion dollar Abacha loot still lying in Swiss accounts, former president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo has stated, just as he blamed the World Bank for contributing to the problems of Nigeria.

Obasanjo made this startling revelation on Tuesday in Warri, Delta State, while making remarks on leadership as the major factor affecting the growth of the nation. The former president was chairman at a lecture organised in honour of Chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, as part of the series of programmes organised to mark his 40th year in ministry, which was held at the basement of the  international auditorium of Word of Life Bible Church, Ajamimogha Street, Warri.

While responding to a question posed on corruption, Obasanjo derided the World Bank for only being able to blackmail countries like Nigeria as corrupt, but doing little to give away names of the corrupt individuals, the amount stolen and where the monies are kept in foreign accounts. 

He blamed the bank for making Nigeria poorer by misleading her into introducing the Structural Adjustment Programme during the General Ibrahim Babangida regime even when it knew it would spell doom for the country.

“When I was president, I called the World Bank. I said, please, give me the list of the amount that has been stolen, where is it kept and who the beneficiaries are. I never got anything from the World Bank thereafter. We have on our own decided that we will investigate and get from one family, Abacha family alone,” he revealed.

 “From the Abacha family alone, we recovered millions of dollars.  I got 1.25 billion dollars (100m pounds);  and the lawyer in Swizerland (he is still there), who was doing it for us, said, when I was leaving, that if we worked harder, there was still, at least, one billion dollars that we can get from that family alone,” he maintained, adding that only an insincere and mad person will not acknowledge that there is corruption in Nigeria.

He querried the inability of antigraft bodies in the country to bite as it happened during his regime. “I am not saying we are not corrupt. As a nation, we are corrupt, but are we doing something about it? I once heard people, during my regime, saying that the fear of Ribadu was the beginning of wisdom but today, there is no longer any wisdom,” he averred.

The United States listed the names of the beneficiaries of the bribery scandal and the banks in the country where the money was kept.

According to the source, the United States government was insisting that if it could try Halliburton officials and convict them, there was nothing stopping Nigeria from doing same.

It further added that this was a singular test for the Federal Government to know if it was sincere in its fight against corruption.

The source revealed that a former Chief of Air Staff collected a total sum of $70 million through his company, Tri-star in trains one and two, while $40 million was collected in trains three and four and paid to the cronies of a former head of state.

Also, $35 million was collected on trains five and six by the cronies of a former president.

Furthermore, Malabo Oil, belonging to a former petroleum minister, got a share of $2 million.