U.S.$1 Billion Abacha Loot Still Outstanding

About $1 billion (N157 billion) of the loot by the late Head of State, Sani Abacha, remains out of the reach of Abuja, nearly 13 years after his death, and 12 years after moves to recover the public funds he embezzled and laundered to European countries during his four-year junta.

So far, $1.3 billion is said to have been recovered and lodged with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) with the help of Enrico Monfrini, a lawyer hired by Abuja to help track money that corruptly found its way out of the country during the period.

Part of the outstanding $1 billion has been frozen in Liechtenstein, Luxembourg and The Bahamas.

Part of it is also in France and Jersey in the United Kingdom.

Monfrini disclosed in an interview in the latest edition of FT Weekend Magazine that huge funds laundered systematically are often split into irregular amounts - for instance, an amount such as $7.23 million is first split and routed through other banks across the globe, to make it difficult to trace, before eventually showing up in other destinations.

Monfrini, who is based in Geneva, and who is performing a similar role for Brazil and Haiti, among others, spoke of frustration in the job, having to work day and night for months.

He said: "It is one thing to find and freeze the money, but the next step is to confiscate the funds and repatriate them. This is the hardest part.

"Nobody disputes the cause, but some countries refuse to help, or do not have laws that allow it. To give you a practical example, more than $400 million connected with the Abacha case has been sleeping in the Channel Islands for years, because Jersey is unable - through a lack of laws - to confiscate the money by itself."

Most of the restitution is being monitored by the World Bank as part of efforts to ensure such money finds its way into national coffers, instead of being stolen by equally corrupt state officials.

Monfrini, 66, whose father was a diplomat in Gabon and then Cote d'Ivoire, and has had a close relationship with Africa, first became associated with Nigeria incidentally during the Abacha era, representing several opponents of the despot at the time.

After the death of Abacha, the new government wanted someone trusted that could pursue stolen funds and contracted Monfrini.

"I began with very few details," which only led to empty bank accounts, he recalled, following which he lodged a criminal complaint, which was upheld by the authorities in Geneva.

Accounts traced to Abacha, which had a total $650 million were frozen.

That was the first big break, and since then his work consisted of stripping the accounts, to understand where the money came from and where it went.

Monfrini described himself as a specialist in tracing money embezzled or received through corrupt deals by Heads of State, their entourages, other officials and other public servants.

He said the job is not for the lily-livered, coming with hazards, and with threats from cronies and family members of public officers.

"I might get a phone call, or a visit from a lawyer from Paris or London, who would say: 'Oh, well, you know, Enrico, you should be more careful, because that person didn't at all like what you did to him. He is known to be a rather violent person, with contacts...

"You also need to have a network of friends, which I have built up through the Abacha case. I'm talking of journalists, politicians, policemen, prosecutors, and bankers

"I know lawyers who launder money and they make more than I do. I meet a lot of strange and crooked people, but I also meet a lot of straightforward and important people who want the world to change."

Monfrini believes that in 10 years time such brazen theft of state funds by dictators without regard for the poverty of their people would have stopped.

Nations where stolen funds can still be stashed would soon realise that "it is in their best interest not to give safe haven to corrupt funds."

Closer to home, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) officials are in several states, particularly where Governors have ended their second term or were voted out of office last month.

Many of the Governors are making moves to evade the EFCC ahead of the May 29 handover date.

Daily Independent

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Ribadu Gets UN Duty in Afghanistan

The presidential candidate of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) in the April 16, 2011 election, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, is to begin a three-week country governance audit of Afghanistan as part of a six-man international monitoring team set up by the United Nations under the "Afghanistan Anti-Corruption Monitoring and Evaluation Committee".

A statement by Ribadu's media aide, Ibrahim Modibbo, said the ACN presidential candidate left Nigeria for Afghanistan last Tuesday to join five other team members in Dubai who together travelled to Kabul where they were expected to fine tune the strategy of curbing corruption in the troubled country.

While in Afghanistan, the statement said, the committee's duties, according to briefing papers from the Department of Foreign International Development (DFID) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) office, include a review of the social, political, economic and cultural conditions giving life to corruption in the country, which they tag "drivers of corruption."

The group is also expected to make a sustainable proposal on how to curb the crime and moral ill that has ravaged the image and international standing of the conflict-ridden country.

It noted that aside from offering best "approach and principles" of fighting corruption on a legal basis", the monitoring team, according to its mandate, is also expected to propose ways of ensuring that international aid and development financing to Afghanistan meets with the country's "national priorities".

Afghanistan (ranked 176th) is the third most corrupt country, with a CPI (corruption perception index) of 1.4 according to Transparency International (TI), with only Somalia (178) and Myanmar (176) ranked worst. Nigeria is ranked 134 with a CPI of 2.4 among the 178 countries ranked.

According to the statement, members of the committee who were appointed late last year commenced work on April 21 with a teleconference on the task at hand and how to achieve their mission, adding that the monitoring and evaluation is expected to help the Afghanistan government in its fight against corruption and also guide the international community on how best to relate with the country.

It also stated that even though the committee is expected to complete its work in two years, the task would not affect Ribadu's national priorities and his continued commitment to the growth and development of Nigeria.

It stressed that "it is Mr Ribadu's contribution to the global fight against corruption that has gotten him this recognition. This will however not deter him from playing his roles as a responsible citizen and political leader in our country.

"You know, his party, the ACN, controls six states and Mr. Ribadu will do all he can to ensure that the governors of those six states bring the dividends of democracy to their people in order to let Nigerians know that the ACN is the best party to rule the country," it said.

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Two Kids Found Dead in Mother's Freezer

TWO children of a woman (names withheld), working at the Central Hospital Agbor, in Delta State have been found dead in their mother's deep freezer.

The names of the children were given as Harrison and Favour. Favour was a five year old girl and Harrisson , a 7 year old boy who were pupils of Community Day Care/Primary School Agbor.

Vanguard gathered that their mother had allegedly locked up the kids in her one-bedroom apartment and went to the market only to return and found the kids stone dead in the freezer.

The woman who is said to be a single parent is alleging foul play, noting that blood was reportedly found trickling from both the mouth and nose of the children.

According to her "when I returned from the slaughter, I went straight to where I kept the key but to my greatest surprise, the key was no where to be found".

State Police Public Relations Officer, PPRO, Charles Muka told Vanguard, Sunday, that "we (police) are investigating. No arrest has been made; the woman locked the kids inside(her apartment) and took the keys away".

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Barack Obama congratulates Goodluck Jonathan and condemns riots

United States President Barack Obama has personally called and congratulated President Goodluck Jonathan on his victory in the April 16 presidential election.

And as political groups and regional blocs lobby for key positions after the general election, the South-east Caucus in the House of Representatives Wednesday intensified its bid to clinch a prominent place in the next democratic dispensation, particularly at the National Assembly.

A statement released Wednesday night by the White House stated that Obama called Jonathan in the morning to congratulate him on his electoral victory and to commend the people of Nigeria "for their resolve and patience during last month's historic presidential, legislative and gubernatorial elections".

Obama pointed out that "the success of the elections was a testament to Nigerian voters who waited in long lines, stayed to watch their votes counted and were determined that these elections mark a new chapter in Nigerian history."

He also acknowledged that "credit also belongs to the Independent National Electoral Commission, the National Youth Service Corps, and Nigeria's vibrant civil society, all of which must play a role in ensuring that the final results reflect the will of the Nigerian people and that Nigerian authorities investigate and address any allegations of fraud or irregularities."

He noted that while the majority of Nigerians cast their ballots free from intimidation and coercion, "the post-election violence that followed the presidential election on April 16 was deplorable. Violence has no place in a democratic society, and it is the responsibility of all Nigerians to reject it."

The US president pointed out that even with the success recorded in the conduct of free and fair polls, "Democracy, however, neither begins nor ends with elections."

To move forward, Obama stressed that "now is the time for Nigeria's leaders and its people to come together and build the future that they deserve-a multi-party democracy that addresses the aspirations of all Nigerians, especially its youth, who did so much to make the recent elections a success and who will define the nation's future."

In a veiled reference to the ethnic and religious undertones that underlined the electioneering campaigns and post election violence, Obama reminded Jonathan that "As Africa's most populous country, Nigeria can show what is possible when people of different parties, ethnicities and faith backgrounds come together to seek peace, provide for their families, and give their children a better future."

To drive the point further home on the import of the just concluded polls, Obama emphasized that "Today, Nigerians have an historic opportunity to move forward together and make their nation into a model for Africa. As I told President Jonathan, I look forward to strengthening our partnership with Nigeria so that this and future generations of Nigerians can live in peace, democracy and prosperity."

Meanwhile, the parliamentary caucus, made up of 43 legislators from the five states in the South-east geo-political zone, rose from a crucial meeting Wednesday and demanded that it would only accept the position of presiding officer in either of the two chambers of the National Assembly.

The lawmakers said their demand for a South-east federal lawmaker to be made the Senate President or Speaker of the House of Representatives in the seventh session of the National Assembly was based on the overwhelming contributions of the zone to the victory of the ruling PDP in the just-concluded elections.

They argued that it would be unfair for a region which had shown so much loyalty to the ruling party to be relegated to the background in the aftermath of the elections.

In a communiqué issued at the end of the meeting, the caucus expressed concern that in recent times, the South-east geopolitical zone of the country had suffered serious political setbacks and would no longer tolerate a situation where some internal and external political forces were unleashed on the region to stifle its political fortunes.

It recalled that in the build up to the general election, the zone demonstrated absolute good faith when it unconditionally backed the candidature of President Jonathan and delivered the needed block votes that gave him (Jonathan) victory at the PDP presidential primary, resulting in his emergence as the party flag bearer. This support, the caucus said, was in spite of the "numerous tempting offers from our brothers" from other geopolitical zones of the country.

"We insist on either the offices of the President of the Senate or Speaker of the House of Representatives. We will reject other offices such as Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Deputy President of the Senate or any such office that may be offered to undermine the attainment of the two offices so mentioned. It is pertinent to mention here that under the present circumstances only the position of Senate President or Speaker of the House of Representatives is acceptable to the South-east. It is a gratuitous insult to offer the South-east any position less than this.

"The position of the South-east that it would not run for the office of the President or Vice-President, no doubt compelled both the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) presidential candidates, to pick their running mates from the South-west geo-political zone.

"The results of the just-concluded general elections show that, the PDP in the South-east received over 85 per cent support in the National Assembly elections, and about 97 per cent support in the presidential election. The total votes of 5.1 million represent almost a quarter of the total valid votes received by President Jonathan in the presidential election. Indeed, the PDP has won all three of the governorship elections conducted so far in the South-east.

"From the above figures, it is crystal clear that in the 2011 general elections, the PDP did very well in the South-east zone. This position is in line with the voting pattern started in 1999, representing PDP dominance in the South-east. It is therefore incomprehensible that over 85 per cent South-east support for PDP in the National Assembly elections will be sacrificed for any reason whatsoever.

"The argument about religious balancing is not tenable, historically. We may recall that in the 2nd Republic, while the President (Shagari) was a Muslim, the Vice-President, Senate President and Speaker were all Christians. Hell was not let loose. During the 1993 presidential elections, the South-east put its weight behind the SDP's Abiola/Kingibe candidature - a Muslim-Muslim ticket.

"In 2007, the President of the Senate, Senator David Mark and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt. Hon Patricia Etteh were Christians. In fact, in the current legislature, both the Speaker and the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives are Muslims. Religion has never been an issue," the communiqué read in part.

The caucus enjoined the central socio-cultural organisation in the zone, the Ohaneze Ndigbo, all the governors of the South-east zone, all Senators and Honourable members-elect, and all stakeholders in the politics of the South-east, who were part and parcel of the zone's support for President Jonathan, to prevail on the national leadership of the ruling party to ensure that the South-east was not short-changed in the distribution of key political positions.

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Stampede in Kano, Nigeria over Bin Laden's death

There was stampede in Kano on Monday when news of the death of al-Qaida leader, Osama bin Ladin, in Pakistan via US raids spread across the city just recovering from post-election violence.

The commercial city, which recorded violence that claimed several lives and properties, witnessed another round of stampede resulting in temporary closure of markets, shops and other business places, as residents in flash points where non-indigenes had suffered colossal losses in the past hurried out of the areas.

As news that America's most wanted man had been killed became public, panic and jitters set in resulting in massive movement as non-indigenes scampered for safety.

Some Muslim faithful in Christian dominated areas like Sabon Gari also took to their heels.

In the seeming confusion was the Kofar Ruwa building material market where properties worth several millions of naira were destroyed in the post election violence.

Traders at that side of the market horridly shut their business premises and moved into Sabon Gari inhabited predominantly by non-Muslims and non-natives.

Our correspondent reports that the anxiety on Monday was a clear manifestation of the fact that non-indigenes in Kano are still living in fear despite assurances by security agencies of their safety.

It was gathered that there was also a mass movement of people from Kurna-Asabe, Bachirawa, Mitara and Rijiya Lemo to the Army barracks, while residents in other identified flash-points such as Brigade, Badawa, Dakata, Hotoro and Zango, have also started a gradual movement to the different police barracks in the city.

However, there has never been any sign of possible violence arising from bin Ladin's death, but going by previous experiences where problems in the Arab world are considered as an attack on Islam, non-Muslims are always apprehensive because most times they were at the receiving end.

The situation has also provoked a reinforcement of armed security agents, some of who have been deployed to strategic locations while others are known to be on patrol.

The military men are still very much on the streets of Kano, with armoured personnel carriers also seen in some strategic corners of the city.

Daily Independent

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