Funds held in Jersey since the Abacha era will be repatriated under a December 2025 MoU and deployed to complete Nigeria’s major highway project.
Authorities in the UK Crown Dependency of Jersey will repatriate over $9.5 million in funds linked to corruption during the regime of late Nigerian leader Sani Abacha to the Federal Government of Nigeria for use in critical infrastructure projects.
The repatriation was publicly announced on Friday, January 9, 2026, following the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in December 2025 between His Majesty’s Attorney General for Jersey, Mark Temple KC, and Nigerian officials.
The funds are earmarked for the final stages of the Abuja–Kano Road, a 375‑kilometre highway connecting the nation’s capital to Kano, Nigeria’s second-largest city.
The recovery process began on 29 November 2023, when Jersey’s Attorney General applied to the Royal Court of Jersey under the Forfeiture of Assets (Civil Proceedings) (Jersey) Law 2018, seeking to seize assets suspected of being “tainted property.”
On 12 January 2024, the court granted the forfeiture order, ruling that the funds were “more likely than not” proceeds of corruption involving diversion of public money to senior officials and their associates.
Although the exact date for the physical transfer has not been disclosed, the MoU sets out the framework for the funds’ repatriation and deployment.
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Nigeria’s Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi SAN, described the return as evidence of strong international cooperation against illicit financial flows and assured that the recovered funds would be used strictly in line with the agreement.
Jersey’s Attorney General said the repatriation highlights the effectiveness of the jurisdiction’s civil forfeiture laws in tackling corruption.
This latest return continues a longstanding partnership between Jersey and Nigeria, which has seen more than $300 million in recovered assets returned for use in major projects, including the Lagos–Ibadan Expressway, the Second Niger Bridge, and earlier phases of the Abuja–Kano Road.
The repatriation underscores Nigeria’s ongoing efforts to recover assets looted during the Abacha era, decades after his death in 1998.