Abubakar Atiku Bagudu will return to Nigeria today from Texas where he was held while attempts were made to extradite him to Jersey.
Funds worth US$163 million held in Jersey that were frozen by the Attorney General William Bailhache, and alleged to have been stolen by Bagudu, have been returned to the Nigerian Government as part of the deal.The Nigerian Attorney General will prosecute Bagudu, who is alleged to have benefitted from the systematic plundering of the Nigerian central bank that went on during the reign of the late General Sani Abacha.The deal brings to an end an investigation that began in 2001 when the Attorney General’s office and Joint Financial Crimes Unit of the States of Jersey Police started looking into funds held in Jersey by people associated to General Abacha.The General held power in Nigeria between 1993 and 1998, and has been accused of plundering billions of dollars from the Nigerian Central Bank.
Both Bagudu, and Abacha’s son Mohammed, repaid some of the money in 1998, but the Federal Government of Nigeria remains substantially out of pocket.
It is understood that the investigation centred on an account opened by Bagudu in Jersey with Deutsche Bank International.
