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Govt
awaits Swiss court order on Abacha N70 billion loot
By
Uchenna Awom
NationalAssembly
Correspondent in
Geneva
Nigeria's
Permanent Representative to the United Nation's Office in Geneva, Joseph
Ubaka Ayalogu, on Thursday said the government would have to wait for the
final decision of the Supreme Court of Switzerland before it can take
possession of the $500million (N70 billion) looted fund traced to the
accounts of late Head of State Sani Abacha.
A
Swiss federal court ruled on August 18 that the money was of an illegal
origin and should be repatriated to its original source. Besides, the
Swiss Government had given instructions that another $7 million be put in
a special bank account pending the ruling.
However,
the judgement was with a caveat that the Abacha family had a one month
period to appeal against it. The period expired on September
18.
Ayalogu
told Nigerian journalists covering the ongoing Inter-Parliamentary Union
(IPU) conference in Geneva that there are indications that the Abacha
family has appealed the order, which the Swiss Supreme Court has to
process.
His
words: "The position now is that there is an appeal by the Abacha family
and the Supreme Court in Switzerland has to process the appeal. Once the
court decides, that is done. Though we would not like to pre-judge the
ruling of the court in this matter, we are hopeful, we count on the Swiss
justice system which has been favourable all along".
According
to him, the previous pattern was to wait for the decision of the courts in
Nigeria, but now, once the Supreme Court of Switzerland gives its ruling,
then that will be the end of the matter.
The
decision of the court is landmark, he said, and that the Swiss government
is encouraged by the steady development of the democratic process in
Nigeria as well as the promise that the funds will be judiciously
utilised.
�The
decision is an indication that the Swiss Government has been under
pressure as a country that allows ill-gotten funds to be deposited in its
banks, on the excuse of' secrecy'. As such, it wants to clean its image by
sending this signal to other countries where illegal wealth is pillaged
that Switzerland is no longer a safe haven for such illegal
funds�.
The
111th IPU conference ends today.
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