Supreme Court dismisses Abacha family’s bid to stop fresh probe

The Supreme Court, on Friday. rejected an appeal by members of the late General Sani Abacha’s family which sought to halt efforts to reopen criminal forfeiture proceedings against the former head of state and some members of his family for their alleged involvement in the looting of the national treasury while Abacha was in office.

The Supreme Court, in a unanimous decision that was read by Justice Emmanuel Agim, found that the concurrent factual findings and legal conclusions in the case are impregnable and, as a result, dismissed the appeal and ordered the parties to bear their own legal expenses.

A five-member panel of Justices of the court had, last year fixed the January 13, 2023 date for the judgement after counsel to parties in the matter made their final submissions and adopted their briefs of arguments.

The appeal marked: SC/641/2013 was filed by the eldest surviving son of the late Abacha, Mohammed and his brother, Abba (for themselves and on behalf of the family of late General Abacha).

Listed as respondents are the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), the Inspector General of Police (IGP), DCP P. Y. Hana (Chairman, Special Investigation Panel), the National Security Adviser (NSA) and Magistrate Sonja Nachbaur (of the Principality of Liechtenstein).

The case is an appeal against the July 25, 2013, judgment of the Court of Appeal, Kaduna Division, which upheld the June 26, 2009 decision of the Federal High Court in Kaduna dismissing the Abacha family’s lawsuit for lack of locus standi (the legal capacity to approach the court on the subject matter of the suit).

Read also:US returns another $20m Abacha loot to Nigeria

The late General Abacha, members of his family, and several businesses connected to them were accused of illegal theft of funds by the President Olusegun Olusegun Obasanjo administration in 1999.

Based on the claims, the then-AGF, speaking on behalf of the Federal Government, asked the Principality of Liechtenstein’s government for mutual assistance and to start criminal forfeiture procedures against the Abacha family and the businesses in which they have stakes.

The Liechtenstein government asked for the court hearing to be moved at one point during the proceedings before the Princely Court of Liechtenstein to the office of the National Security Adviser (NSA) in Nigeria so that Magistrate Sonja Nachbaur could interview some identified Nigerian witnesses for additional testimony.

Following Nigerian government’s granting of the request for the proceedings to be moved to Nigeria, DCP P. Y. Gana issued summons to witnesses to appear before Magistrate Nachbaur (a Magistrate of the Principality of Liechtenstein), who was to sit as a court in the territory of Nigeria.

Join the conversation

Opinions

Support Ripples Nigeria, hold up solutions journalism

Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.

As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.

If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.

Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.

Donate Now