NIGERIA PUSHES TO RECOVER ABACHA'S 185 MILLION EURO

Nigeria has embarked on an international campaign to press Liechtenstein to return the 185 million euro,ill gotten gains linked to the late millitry dictator, General Sani Abacha, which is still haboured in the tiny principality nearly 14 years after recovery proceeding began.
The Nigerian Government first requested assistance from Liechtenstein in running the assets in 2000, two years after Abacha's sudden death paved the way to democracy in Nigeria.
A report by the Financial Times yesterday, stated that criminal investigations and subsequent forfeiture proceedings established that the fund originated from bribes paid by Germany Ferrostaal AG to companies whose ultimate beneficiary was the late Head of State. According to the Newspaper, the transaction were related to grossly inflated contract for the construction of an aluminium smelter.
Liechtenstein's constitutional court ordered the confiscation of the fund in  2012 and in March 2013, dismissed a final appeal against the other by companies linked to the Abacha family, clearing the way restitution of the fund.
But the Liechtenstein's government has decline to accept written guarantee from Nigeria that he will compensate  the country in the unlikely event that it should incur any liabilities in a further suit that had been filed by the Abach-link- companies at the European Court of Human Right in Strasborg.
This could delay the return of the funds for several more years. The late Abacha was the penultimate and most brutal of Nigeria's military ruler the newspaper said.
The late head of state and what Switzerland's Supreme Court dubbed the "Abacha family criminal enterprises."  the newspaper alleged, amassed a fortune worth several billion dollars from misappropriation of public funds during is 1993 to 1998 rule. The Lawyer representing the Abacha's family could not be reached.