The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) declared in Abuja yesterday that about $450 million out of the over $3 billion alleged to have been stolen by the late Head of State, Gen Sani Abacha could not be traced.
Making the revelation at a press briefing on the Non-Conviction Based Forfeiture of Proceeds and Instrumentalities of Unlawful Activity Bill, Tim Daniel, a legal expert from the United Kingdom brought in by UNODC to assist the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in the draft of the bill, stressed that even though there is proof that the missing loot was stashed somewhere, it could not be traced.
According to him, the total of $1.9 billion so far recovered from the Abacha family by the Federal Government was significant in assets recovery but added that there were still funds stolen from Nigeria which were yet to be recovered.
He disclosed that $300 million was still to be repatriated to Nigeria from Luxembourg where it was stashed away by the late head of state, saying the letters of request by the Olusegun Obasanjo administration were yet to yield fruit.
Daniel further said the late military ruler also stashed $400 million in Liechtenstein which Nigeria was yet to recover.
According to him, “the cases of Luxembourg and Liecht-enstein are cases of monies frozen or lost by banks.”
He added that the Federal Government and its partners had intensified efforts to trace the whereabouts of the funds, saying that he was optimistic that the efforts would bear dividends soon.
He gave a breakdown of the recovered $1.9 billion from the late head of state as $750 million voluntary surrender by the family, while $570 million was recovered from Switzerland.
“$380 million was recovered from Jersey and $150 million which was the Ajaokuta Steel plant debt was recovered from UK,” he added.
The legal expert explained that assets recovery mechanisms include criminal and civil mechanisms, mutual legal assistance in criminal proceedings, international enforcement of confiscation orders, civil forfeiture and private civil proceedings.
Also, thieving state and federal executives currently protected by immunity under Section 308 of the 1999 Constitution may no longer have the joy to flaunt their loot if the current effort aimed at pushing a non-conviction based Forfeiture of Proceeds and Instrumentalities of Unlawful Activity Bill co-sponsored by the Federal Government and UNODC sails through.
Section 308 of the 1999 constitution confers immunity on the President, Vice-President, governors and their deputies from being sued.
Legal Consultant to UNODC, Martin Pallaine, told newsmen at a briefing yesterday that the bill seeks to make provision for the restraint and civil forfeiture of property derived from unlawful activity and would give law enforcement agencies the powers to confiscate such property without the need for a criminal conviction.
According to him, “Section 308 of the constitution should not be a bar to civil forfeiture because the action is against the property. The property does not enjoy immunity.”
He described civil forfeiture as the mechanism by which, in the absence of criminal proceedings, the proceeds of criminal activity could be confiscated so as to deprive a person of the ill-gotten wealth.
He said though civil forfeiture was not a substitute for prosecution, the former prosecutor in the United Kingdom, maintained that the beauty of such legislation for Nigeria would be that “where there is some reasonable evidence, even if not enough, the assets could be confiscated as long as there is a pointer that the wealth used in acquiring the property is illegal”.
Outlining the advantages of civil forfeiture, Pallaine maintained that “it allows for confiscation where an individual has been tried before a criminal court but acquitted, perhaps through a perverse verdict or because the evidence fell short of the criminal standard of proof.”
Also speaking, Senior Project Manager, UNODC, Oliver Stolpe, noted that stolen assets were difficult to trace, adding that even where it is possible to identify the assets, it might be impossible to bring the looters to justice and recover the funds.
He said: “Non-Conviction Based Asset Forfeiture can be essential when the wrongdoer is dead, has fled the country or is immune from prosecution; or cannot be prosecuted for health reasons.”
May212009