Guardian (Nigeria)    July 15/2002

Police may arraign Mohammed Abacha on fresh charges today   by John Abba-Ogbodo

"...The Swiss Ministry said the funds to be repaid currently frozen in various bank account abroad, would be transferred to Bank for International settlement in Basel, a commercial and industrial city in Switzerland..."

It may not yet be freedom for the eldest son of Nigeria's late Head of State, Mohammed Abacha, as indications emerged yesterday that he may still have another case to answer.

Abacha who is being detained at the Kuje Medium Prison, Abuja, according to sources, may be arraigned today at an Abuja Federal High Court, to face charges slammed on him over alleged financial crimes committed during the reign of his father.

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His ebullient attorneys, armed with a copy of the Supreme Court judgement had ran to the prison on Thursday, asking that the gates be flung open for him. But that was not to be.

Shortly after the Supreme Court ruled that he had no case to answer over the murders perpetrated during his father's reign, the prison's authorities sent words to the Kuje Prisons, to keep the gates locked until a Release Warrant duly signed is received by them from the headquarters.

The prison's officials' action, The Guardian learnt, might not be unconnected with the Nigeria police plan to dock Abacha today at the Federal High Court, over alleged financial crime.

But Abacha's lawyers are not relenting. The team, led by former Minister for Solid Minerals, Kaloma Ali, held a meeting at the weekend, to perfect strategies to scale the fresh hurdle.

A competent source at the prison headquarters in Abuja hinted The Guardian that the son of the late Head of State would be arraigned in court today on charges of financial crime.

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It was equally gathered that his lawyers might move a motion for his bail.

Meanwhile, friends and family members of the Abachas are still thronging the Kuje prison, as at yesterday, to see if his release would be effected.

In a brokered truce, reached with the Federal Government and the family of the late General Sanni Abacha in May 2002, the Swiss Banks offered to return $535 million under an out of court settlement.

Under the deal, a total of around $1 billion will be transferred to Nigeria from banks around the world. In return, the country will drop criminal proceedings against members of the former Head of State's family.

The settlement allows Abacha's family to keep $100 million of the total disputed cash while the rest goes to the Federal Government purse.

Gen. Abacha who died in 1998 was accused of stealing about $3 billion from the state fund. The funds were acquired before he began his five year rule in 1995.

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Nigeria asked Switzerland in 1999 to help uncover the financial network it suspected that the late ruler had established. In response, the Swiss authorities froze around $670 million in bank account belonging to the late Head of State, his son Mohammed, his widow Mariam and other relatives.

Suspicious money was also discovered in Liechtenstein, Luxembourg and Jersy while Britain has found traces of around $1.3 billion thought to have been handled by domestic banks for the family and its friends.

The Swiss Ministry said the funds to be repaid currently frozen in various bank account abroad, would be transferred to Bank for International settlement in Basel, a commercial and industrial city in Switzerland.

In July last year Swiss authorities returned a first installment of $64 million of an estimated $600 million hidden in the country during Abacha's five year rule.

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