Supreme Court rejects request by Abachas to unfreeze accounts in UK, Switzerland, others

23 Jan Supreme Court rejects request by Abachas to unfreeze accounts in UK, Switzerland, others

A fresh move by the family of the late military head of state, General Sani Abacha, to unfreeze foreign accounts traced to him and relatives crashed on Friday as the Supreme Court declined the request.

Younger brother of the deceased, Alhaji Ali Abacha, had approached the apex bank to unfreeze the accounts domiciled in the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Jersey, Liechtenstein and Luxembourg.

A five-man panel of the court, in a unanimous judgment, held that Ali Abacha’s case was statute barred as at when it was commenced in April 2004 at the Federal High Court in Kaduna.