Recovered Abacha loot earmarked for the needy

Nigeria has announced that $320m stolen by former military dictator Sani Abacha and later recovered would be spent on ‘the poorest and most vulnerable’. Addressing the 8th Commonwealth Conference of Anti-Corruption Agencies in Africa, Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo, said it was one of the conditions made by the Swiss authorities for releasing the funds. The Premium Times reports that he said corruption had continued to be one of the greatest challenges in the continent and called for international collaboration to stem the ‘scourge’. He added that African governments have a moral obligation ‘to fight it with vigour and political will’. Legalbrief reports that Abacha and his family allegedly stole an estimated $6.75bn from the country's coffers. In 2014, the US Department of Justice revealed that it had frozen more than $458m believed to have been illegally obtained by Abacha and other corrupt officials.

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