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PARIS - SWITZERLAND has halted a deal to hand back $458 million stolen by the late General Sani Abacha and hidden in Swiss banks while it seeks to expel Nigerian illegal immigrants, an outraged President Olusegun Obasanjo said yesterday.
PARIS - SWITZERLAND has halted a deal to hand back $458 million stolen by the late General Sani Abacha and hidden in Swiss banks while it seeks to expel Nigerian illegal immigrants, an outraged President Olusegun Obasanjo said yesterday.
President Obasanjo, who is on a visit to Paris, accused Switzerland of acting illegally in side-stepping a ruling from its own Supreme Court, which in February ordered that the funds be returned and demanded that the money be immediately returned.
'I must express deepest disappointment and dismay with the Swiss authorities who continue to hold onto Nigeria's legitimate funds, covertly looted and kept in their banks," he told an audience of dignitaries at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris, according to his spokeswoman, Mrs Remi Oyo.
'The necessary and correct actions for the funds' repatriation have been taken by us and the Swiss Supreme Court has ruled that the funds should be returned to Nigeria without condition," he said, adding: 'Such illegal seizure is condemned by us and we call on all men and women of honest disposition and goodwill to condemn the Swiss action which is contrary to United Nations conventions against corruption and which undermines our own anti-corruption crusade."
Finance Minister, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, who is also in Paris, said Nigeria's legal representative in Switzerland had received a letter from the Swiss Federal Office of Justice saying that the repayment would be delayed while the country sought to expel Nigerian illegal immigrants. 'We're just completely flabbergasted, what they are doing is tantamount to blackmail," she said on telephone.
The minister said that, following earlier Swiss assurances, the money was included in Nigeria's 2004 budget and that when it was not handed over she had been forced to issue government bonds to pay for poverty eradication projects.
The Swiss letter said $290 million would be released when a deal has been reached with the World Bank to monitor how it would be spent and the balance paid after four months if the immigration issue is resolved, the minister said. Swiss officials were not immediately available for comment.
Dr. Okonjo-Iweala insisted that the World Bank and Swiss non-governmental organisations had already agreed on how to monitor the spending of the stolen money, and expressed anger that the situation of Nigerian immigrants in Switzerland could be raised as a means of further delaying its return. 'What has that got to do with our money? They've already deported two plane loads of people. Why would you hold up money that's supposed to be spent on education, clean water supplies and rural electrification?" she demanded.
General Sani Abacha ruled Nigeria between 1993 and 1998 during which time he looted several billion dollars in public funds and laundered it through foreign bank accounts.
Nigeria has been pursuing the banks through the courts for four years and some two billion dollars has been returned, Okonjo-Iweala said.