Supreme Court dismisses Abacha family’s bid to stop fresh probe

The Supreme Court, on Friday. rejected an appeal by members of the late General Sani Abacha’s family which sought to halt efforts to reopen criminal forfeiture proceedings against the former head of state and some members of his family for their alleged involvement in the looting of the national treasury while Abacha was in office.

The Supreme Court, in a unanimous decision that was read by Justice Emmanuel Agim, found that the concurrent factual findings and legal conclusions in the case are impregnable and, as a result, dismissed the appeal and ordered the parties to bear their own legal expenses.

A five-member panel of Justices of the court had, last year fixed the January 13, 2023 date for the judgement after counsel to parties in the matter made their final submissions and adopted their briefs of arguments.