draining development.pdf - Khazar University

424 Draining Development?The court was in little doubt that the sums in question were derivedfrom withdrawals from the CBN. The main perpetrators undoubtedlyremained the Abachas themselves, particularly Mohammed and Bagudu.To a large extent, they duped the banks. How they did this emerges in theSwiss Federal Supreme Court judgment. 12The court noted that certain accounts were held by unidentified Nigeriannationals calling themselves such names as Sani Mohammed, AbbaMuhamad Sani, Ibrahim Muhammad Sani, Abba Sani, Sani AbduMohammed, Sani Ibrahim, Ibrahim Muhammad, Sani Abba Muhammad,and Sani Abdu Muhammad. Abacha’s three sons were named Ibrahim,Mohammed, and Abba.The defendants stated that, in accordance with the traditions of Muslimfamilies of northern Nigeria, from which they originated, their realsurname is Sani. They claimed, further, that it is usual to reverse thesurname and forename or to use nicknames to distinguish persons bearingthe same forename (sometimes as between brothers in the same family).The evidential value of the legal opinion to which they referred onthese points was queried because it came from a person who had closelinks with the defendants. The court stated that, interesting though theconsiderations expressed by the expert on customs relating to personalnames in Nigeria might be, they were not of such a nature as to explainthe fact that three individuals opened the accounts in question underdifferent identities and presented different passports on each occasion. Itwas clear to the court that the persons who opened the accounts in questionnot only used false names, but deliberately sought to mislead thebanking institutions they approached by causing confusion over theirreal identities. The defendants did not attempt to indicate to which ofthem the various surnames and forenames used in combination everytime they opened an account specifically belonged; they also did notcontest that they were all known under their usual name of Abacha inthe criminal proceedings against them in Nigeria.The repatriation of funds. The investigations conducted by the Genevaauthorities, with the cooperation of Nigeria, enabled the Swiss FederalOffice to have a clear view of the origin of the frozen funds and determinethat it was manifestly criminal. Consequently, in August 2004, theFederal Office, utilizing a provision in the Federal Law on Mutual Assis-