Attorney-General of the Federation yesterday stalled hearing of the suit against the Federal Government on moves to retrieve alleged looted money stashed in foreign accounts by the Abacha family.

On May 14, 2002, the Attorney-General (Agabi) had via an application for adjournment moved by the Director of Civil Litigation (DCL) in his ministry, Chief Olaseinde Kumuyi, expressed his intention to take up the Abacha suit challenging the government’s loot recovery drive personally with the promise that he would also produce the documents he was supposed to produce by the court on the next adjourned date, being June 25, 2002.

However, on resumption of hearing yesterday, Agabi neither appeared in court nor produced before court through any other legal officer of his ministry.

Consequently, the hearing could not go on into the matter. Piqued by what he described as “unfair practice”,counsel for the plaintiff (Abacha), Mr. Yunus Usman Ustaz (SAN) argued that there was no justification for the absence of Agabi.

His words: “It is not the honourable Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) that is before the Supreme Court today. There is, therefore, no reason why the AGF is not here. My lord, in fact, it was the Director of Civil Litigation that said the AGF wanted to appear personally to take over the case, but sought adjournment because he was attending the call to bar session. Yet, today he is not here, neither did he produce nor make available to court the documents he was subpoenaed to produce before the court by your lordship.”

“With due respect, all the adjournment in this case so far has either been at their instance or caused by them. My lord, in the even that you are mindful of granting them another adjournment, may we humbly ask for the following reliefs:

That the AGF (Agabi) must produce all the documents he has been subpoenaed to produce before the court on the next adjourned date.

That subject to an act of God which we don’t pray for this must be the last adjournment at their instance.

The documents for which the Attorney General of the Federation was subpoenaed to produce are related to correspondences made by the FG in its drive to recover the alleged Abacha loot.

The documents include the following:

Original or certified true copies of the letter dated 20th December 1999 addressed to the office of Fed De la police, Bern, Switzerland and certified English translated copy thereof;

The original or certified true copies of the letter dated 29th February 2000, addressed to the ministry of justice of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg and the Certified English translated copy thereof;

The original or certified true copies of the letter dated 28th July, 2000, addressed to the Rechts di enst der Regiening des furstentums and the certified English translated copy thereof;

The original or certified true copy of the letter addressed to the secretary of state for Home Affairs of the United Kingdom written in July, 2000 requesting for mutual assistance; and

the original or certified true copies of the letter addressed to the Attorney General of Jersey requested for mutual assistance written by the office of Nigeria’s Attorney General of the Federation.”

Ustaz had argued at an earlier proceedings that these documents issued to foreign agencies while the matter was pending in court amounted to an abuse of court process, adding that the AGF was in contempt of court for failing to produce the said documents.

Ruling on the application for adjournment, the presiding judge, Justice Okechukwu Okeke expressed disappointment over the attitude of the legal officers in the Ministry of Justice. Even though he declined granting the two reliefs sought by Abacha’s counsel, on grounds that he had already issued a subpoena on Agabi, he chided the Federal Government’s counsel.

Justice Okeke’s words: “I must say that the attitude of the legal officers in the Ministry of Justice over this matter is disappointing, to say the least.” “The Justice Ministry seemed not interested in seeing to the end of this case, hence they continuously go mounting stumbling blocks against the hearing of this suit.”

“All concerned should know the basic law of nature, that is no condition is permanent; the only thing that remains constant in life is change. This matter is adjourned to the 31st of July 2002.”

Lemmy Ughegbe, Vanguard (Lagos), June 26, 2002