Swiss Ambassador Denies Fresh Release of Abacha Loot to FG

No fresh releases from the blocked funds in Swiss bank accounts of the late Head of State, General Sani Abacha, have been made to the Federal Government of Nigeria since 2009, the Swiss authorities have said.

But this contradicts the country’s earlier claim that it paid $700 million, which it said  was the full payment  of the money, to Nigeria in 2006.

The Swiss Ambassador to Nigeria, Dr. Hans-Rudolf Hodel, in a response to THISDAY inquiry on the matter at the weekend, said the $700 million in Abacha’s Swiss bank accounts earlier blocked by his home government that he had alluded to last week was restituted to the Nigerian government between 2005 and 2009.

He said: “In December 1999, Nigeria presented to Switzerland a formal request for mutual legal assistance involving the former Head of State, Sani Abacha.

“On the basis of Swiss legislation, the Swiss authorities were able to gather, thanks to a close partnership with the Nigerian authorities, all relevant information and to proceed, between 2005 and 2009, with the restitution of the funds to the Nigerian Government.”

The four-year time frame for the return of the funds cited by Hodel controverts an earlier information on the same matter by  one of  his predecessors, Dr. Pierre Helg.

Helg, then Swiss Ambassador to Nigeria, on February 7, 2006, had told journalists in his house after a dinner, that the Swiss Government had fully repatriated to Nigerian government $700 million stashed away in Swiss banks by Abacha.