The younger Abacha, who allegedly manages the family’s assets, is charged in the 1996 murder of Kudirat Abiola, a pro-democracy activist who was married to Abacha’s main political foe. Cochran won’t say who hired him, except that it was “friends of Nigeria”–not the Abacha family. The Abachas maintain that the murder charges are trumped up. They also dispute the numerous published reports that Maryam Abacha tried, shortly after her husband’s death, to leave the country with 38 suitcases stuffed with cash. A Cameroon-based barrister for the family tells NEWSWEEK that “at no point has Mrs. Abacha attempted to leave Nigeria without prior notice to the Nigerian authorities.” He adds that the government has placed undue restrictions on her movements. “Her most recent request to travel to Mecca was not granted by the Nigerian president,” he says. “Further, a request for her 6-year-old son, Mustapha, who is in urgent need of specialized orthopedic surgery, to travel in the company of her elder sister was also turned down.”
