The government of the United Kingdom seized £ 211,000,000, about N81.9 billion from a bank account belonging to the former Nigerian dictator, Sani Abacha.
Mr Abacha died as Nigerian army head of state on June 8, 1998, after more than five years in office.
Doraville Properties Corporation, a British Virgin Islands company, placed the cash into accounts kept in Jersey.
The UK government now holds the cash until the officials in Jersey, the United States and Nigeria agree on how it should be distributed.
“Any cash Jersey keeps will go to the Criminal Confiscation Fund, which will be used to pay for a multitude of projects. The fund has been used in the past for the new La Moye Prison police station and developments.
“In the future, more money held by Doraville is expected to be seized and paid into the Civil Asset Recovery Fund,” the report said.
In 2014, the Attorney General of the Island applied for, at the request of the U.S. authorities, and the Royal Court granted a restraining order over Doraville’s Jersey bank account balance.
“The aim of the restraining order was to keep the cash until the Royal Court could register a final civil asset recovery order.”
Doraville applied to the Royal Court for discharge of the restraint order, but in 2016 the Royal Court rejected the request.
Doraville then questioned the judgment of the Royal Court in 2017, bringing the case to the Court of Appeal of Jersey.
“This challenge was again dismissed. Finally, following Jersey’s Court of Appeal judgment, Doraville appealed against the restraint order before the Privy Council – Jersey’s supreme appeal court.”
“The Privy Council announced its refusal of this final legal challenge in February 2018. Last week, at a UN conference on corruption, Solicitor General Mark Temple gave a lecture on Doraville in Vienna, Austria.”
On several occasions, Mr Buhari challenged the veracity of accounts that Mr Abacha stole billions of dollars from the Nigerian treasury.
