The United States' government has reportedly exposed and
opposed the Buhari-led administration's plan to hand over $100m out of the
recovered Gen Sani Abacha's loot to an All Progressives Congress member and
Governor of Kebbi State, Abubakar Bagudu.
Bloomberg reported that while the U.S. Department of Justice
said Bagudu who spent six months in federal detention in Texas while awaiting
extradition to the Island of Jersey was involved in corruption with Abacha,
Buhari’s administration is insisting there is a 17-year-old agreement which
entitles Bagudu to the recovered funds.
Documents made available by the US Department of Justice
revealed that the Kebbi State Governor who is a close ally of President Buhari
was handed over to criminal trial in Jersey before he agreed to return $163m to
Nigeria. He was subsequently released on bond to Nigeria where he was supposed
to be prosecuted for money laundering, but that trial never took place.
In the case involving Bagudu, the U.S. in 2013 initiated a
forfeiture action against a host of assets, including four investment
portfolios held in London in trust for him and his family, according to the
district court filings.
In court documents filed before the district court of
Columbia, it was learnt that the Nigerian government said there is an agreement
which stops it from assisting the US in investigating Bagudu. The US Department
of Justice also said the Nigerian government is preventing the US from seizing
Bagudu’s alleged loot.
The report reads in part;
“The DoJ also contends that the Nigerian government is
hindering US efforts to recover allegedly laundered money it says it’s traced
to Bagudu. Buhari’s administration says a 17-year-old agreement entitles Bagudu
to the funds and prevents Nigeria from assisting the US, according to recent
filings from the District Court for the District of Columbia in Washington.
“A commitment by Nigeria to transfer the funds to Kebbi
State Governor Abubakar Bagudu appears to undermine Nigerian President
Muhammadu Buhari’s pledge to quell rampant graft in Africa’s top oil producer.
“Despite the forfeiture action being initiated following a
Nigerian state request in 2012, Buhari’s government now says it can’t assist
the US because it’s bound by a settlement Bagudu reached with the
administration of then-President Olusegun Obasanjo in 2003, according to the
court filings."
Bagudu who was cleared to contest in three different
election cycles, was first elected as a senator in 2009. He became Kebbi’s
governor in an election that brought Buhari and his party to power and is now
the chairman of an influential body of governors representing the ruling All
Progressives Congress.
It was gathered that he successfully sued the Nigerian
government for violating the 2003 agreement of investigating him and dropping
all outstanding civil and criminal claims against. In 2018, the Kebbi Governor
reached a new agreement with the Buhari-led administration.
The agreement will reportedly lead to;
"Transfer of ownership of the investment portfolios,
worth 141m euros ($155m) to the Nigerian state, which would then pay 98.5
million euros to Bagudu and his affiliates, according to Bates’ December 23
opinion. The funds are currently restrained by the UK at the request of the US."
Asides claiming that the updated 2018 agreement with the
Kebbi governor which requires court approval in the U.K will “curtail and
mitigate its looming exposure” from the judgment in Bagudu’s favor, it was
alleged that Buhari’s administration submitted the 2018 deal to the UK court in
September to support its application to unfreeze the assets so they can be sent
to Nigeria. The court is however yet to
make a decision.
It is also speculated that the disagreement may hamper
future cooperation between Nigeria and the US to recover state money moved
offshore by Abacha, who Transparency International estimates may have looted as
much as $5bn during his 1993-98 rule.
