The Federal Government has been ordered by the Federal High Court in Abuja to account for a $5 billion Abacha loot returned to the country between from 1999 to 2022.
Daily Report Nigeria reports that the court ordered for the government to account for the funds spent by former presidents, Olusegun Obasanjo, Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, Goodluck Jonathan, and Muhammadu Buhari.
Delivering the groundbreaking judgment, the court directed the President Bola Tinubu to disclose the exact amount Sanni Abacha stole as well as the total amount of Abacha loot recovered and all agreements signed regarding the funds by the aforementioned former presidents.
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The judgment followed a suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/407/2020 and brought before the court by the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP), as Justice James Kolawole Omotosho ruled the group’s favour.
Delivering judgment, Justice Omotosho said, “In the final analysis, the application by SERAP is meritorious, and the Federal Government, through the Ministry of Finance, is hereby directed to provide SERAP with the complete spending details of about $5 billion Abacha loot within 7 days from the date of this judgment.”
Justice Omotosho also ordered for the government to disclose the specific projects executed with the said Abacha loot with their names, locations, contractors and companies involved in the projects since the restoration of democracy in 1999 up to the present.
The court also ordered for the federal government to state in clear terms the roles the World Bank and associate partners played in the implementation of any projects funded with the Abacha loot under the administrations of former presidents Obasanjo, Yar’Adua, Jonathan, and Buhari.
Following an excuse by the Minister of Finance that the ministry was not in possession of the exact amount of public funds stolen by Abacha and how they were spent, Justice Omotosho stated that such an excuse holds no ground under section 7 of the Freedom of Information Act.
Dismissing all objections by the Federal Government, Justice Omotosho’s judgment, dated July 3, 2023, read in part:
“The failure of the Minister of Finance to inform SERAP about the existence of the requested information or to transfer the request to a public office that holds such information is fatal to their case under section 5 of the Freedom of Information Act.
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“The Ministry cannot simply claim that it does not possess the records of the approximately $5 billion Abacha loot sought by SERAP. The government failed to provide details of the projects executed with the funds, including their locations and the names of the companies and contractors involved.
“I hold that, according to the clear wording of section 7 of the Freedom of Information Act, 2011, access to information regarding the spending details of the $5 billion Abacha loot was denied to SERAP by the Federal Government.”
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