Just In: Abacha’s family loses bid to access foreign accounts

This came into effect as the Supreme Court on Friday dismissed the appeal filed by a son of the late dictator, Mohammed Abacha, seeking an order to unfreeze some of the bank accounts held in the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Jersey, Liechtenstein, and Luxembourg.

Delivering judgment in the appeal, a five-man panel of the apex court led by Justice Olukayode Ariwoola, unanimously held that the suit, which was first initiated before the Federal High Court in Kano in January 2004, had become statute-barred.

The accounts were frozen in the countries following mutual judicial assistance agreements entered with the countries by the Nigerian government during the administration of the then President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, in 1999.