Obasanjo claims to have left N287bn Abacha loot in the treasury

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo said he left behind over N287bn loot recovered from late Head of state, Gen. Sani Abacha.

Obasanjo says he left in the national treasury the money, which is broken down as; $2bn, £100m and N10bn in cash and property.

He said the funds were paid into the treasury through the Central Bank of Nigeria.

Based on the present exchange rate, the money would be higher than N287bn, but the exchange rate in 2007 was N125.88 to a dollar and N247.99 to a pound.

The information was obtained from Vol. II of Obasanjo’s memoir, My Watch, under the sub-heading; ‘Recovery of looted funds’.

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.”

Obasanjo added that he once got a report that £3m cash was seized by customs officials at an airport in UK, from an agent of Abacha and the British authorities asked the Nigerian government to prove that it owned the funds.

“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.”