Again, the Supreme Court has turned down the request by the late Head of State, General Sani Abacha’s family to unfreeze the accounts traced to him and other relatives in the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Jersey, Liechtenstein and Luxembourg.
A five-man panel of the apex court, in a unanimous judgment, held that the suit filed by the late Head of State’s brother, Ali Abacha was statute-barred as of April 2004, when it was commenced at the Federal High Court in Kaduna.
In the lead judgment by Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, read by Justice Ejembi Eko, the apex court held that having dismissed a similar appeal in an earlier judgment of February 2020, it has no reason to depart from its reasoning in the case brought by Mister Abba Mohammed Sani on behalf of the Abacha family.
Channels Television reports that the appeal was against the July 19, 2010 unanimous judgment of the Court of Appeal, Kaduna division, in which a three-man panel set aside the September 24, 2004 judgment by Justice Mohammed Liman of Federal High Court, Kaduna, earlier given in favour of Ali Abacha.
Ali Abacha had filed several suits at the Federal High Court, Kaduna in 2004, challenging among others, the 1999 decision by the Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration, acting through the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Kanu Agabi (SAN), to request the freezing of all accounts traced to the late Abacha, his family members and relatives in the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Jersey, Liechtenstein and Luxembourg.