Supreme Court turns down appeal to unfreeze Abacha family’s foreign accounts

An application by late Head of State, Sani Abacha’s brother, Ali Abacha, asking the Supreme Court to unfreeze his and other relatives’ accounts in the UK, Switzerland, Jersey, Liechtenstein and Luxembourg, has been turned down by the apex court.

The Justice Sylvester Ngwuta-led five-member panel, on Friday unanimously held that Ali Abacha’s application was statute barred as at when it was commenced in April 2004 at the Federal High Court in Kaduna.

Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, in the led judgment read to the floor by Justice Ejembi Eko, submitted that the court having dismissed a similar appeal in an earlier judgment given in February 2020, it has no reason to depart from its reasoning in the case brought by Alhaji Abba Mohammed Sani on behalf of the Abacha family.

The court said it noticed that the appellant in this appeal is represented by Reuben Atabo who, incidentally, was the appellant’s counsel in the earlier appeal.

IDOMA VOICE gathered that the judgment was in the appeal marked: SC/359/2010, filed by Alhaji Ali Abacha, said to be a brother of the late Gen Sani Abacha.

The court passed its judgment: “No new superior arguments were proffered here to warrant a departure from the decision in the case of Alhaji Sani, earlier decided. This appeal fails, and it is hereby dismissed.”