UK joins US to block giving $110 million from Abacha loot to Kebbi State governor

The United Kingdom has joined the United States in resisting a plan by the Nigerian government to hand over nearly $110 million of funds the American authorities say was stolen by late dictator, General Sani Abacha, to a the governor of Kebbi State, Alhaji Abubakar Bagudu, Bloomberg has reported.

The three governments are involved in a dispute over investment portfolios worth $155 million traced to Abacha and held in trust for Abubakar Bagudu and his family.

Nigeria is seeking the approval of a British court to take ownership of the assets before returning 70 per cent of the proceeds to Bagudu under the terms of a 2018 deal.

The British government’s National Crime Agency “is opposing the Federal Republic of Nigeria’s application,” according to a motion filed by Bagudu’s brother, Ibrahim, to the District Court for the District of Columbia in the US capital on March 30.

The US Department of Justice said in February that its Nigerian counterpart is hindering its efforts to recover the allegedly laundered money from the UK

Bagudu, 58, was part of a network controlled by Abacha that “embezzled, misappropriated and extorted billions from the government of Nigeria,” according to the Department of Justice.

While successive Nigerian governments have repatriated billions of dollars looted by Abacha, who died in office in 1998, the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari says it’s prevented from assisting the US’s ongoing forfeiture efforts by an agreement between Bagudu and a previous government in 2003. Abacha is estimated to have stolen as much as $5 billion during his five-year rule.

That 2003 settlement, which was approved by a UK court, allowed Bagudu to return $163 million to Nigeria “without admitting to wrongdoing,” according to US court filings. In return, the government dropped all outstanding civil and criminal claims against him. Bagudu was elected a senator in 2009 and the governor of Kebbi State six years later.

Five years after the US launched fresh forfeiture proceedings against him, Bagudu and Buhari’s administration struck a new accord in October 2018 to transfer ownership of the investment portfolios to the Nigerian state, which would immediately pay 98.5 million euros to the Kebbi governor and his affiliates. The terms of the updated settlement can’t be implemented while Nigeria’s application in a UK court is pending and a freezing order is still in place, according to a motion by Ibrahim Bagudu, who is entitled to a $100,000 annuity from the funds and is contesting the US confiscation efforts.

Neither the Bagudus nor representatives of the DoJ, NCA, Nigeria’s Attorney General or Ibrahim Bagudu responded to requests for comments.

 

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