Former Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, has dismissed the petition filed against him over the recovery of the $310 million Abacha loot, describing the allegations as unfounded and illogical.
Malami, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, was invited by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on November 28 and released on bail after several hours of questioning.
In a statement on Sunday, signed by his media aid,e Mohammed Doka, the former minister confirmed that he was interrogated over an alleged duplication of the recovery process for the funds, which later totalled $322.5 million with interest.
According to Malami, the EFCC accused him of abuse of office and money laundering and alleged that Swiss lawyer Enrico Monfrini had already completed the recovery before he assumed office in 2015. He said the claim was inconsistent with verifiable records.
“This allegation collapses immediately when subjected to facts and elementary logic. The facts, mostly documented, were referred to in my response to the interrogatories raised by the commission,” he said.
Malami stressed that a recovery can only be considered complete when the funds are deposited into the Federation Account. As of 2016, he said, there was no evidence that such lodgement had been made.
“There was therefore no completed recovery in existence, and nothing whatsoever to duplicate,” he stated.
He added that Monfrini formally applied in December 2016 to be engaged for the same recovery, which he was said to have already completed two years earlier.
“It is entirely illogical for a lawyer to apply in December 2016 to be engaged to recover funds he purportedly recovered two years earlier. That singular fact exposes the internal contradiction and absurdity of the EFCC’s narrative,” Malami said.
According to him, Monfrini demanded a $5 million upfront payment and a 40 percent success fee, which was later reduced to 20 percent. The Buhari administration rejected the proposal and instead hired a Nigerian law firm on a 5% success fee basis.
“By this decision, Nigeria was saved at least 15 percent of the recovered assets when compared to Mr. Monfrini’s 20 percent demand, and as much as 35 percent when placed against his earlier proposals,” Malami explained.
He estimated the savings to be between N76.8 billion and N179.2 billion at an average exchange rate of N1,600 per dollar.
Malami also listed two major tranches of Abacha loot repatriated during his tenure:
– $322.5 million returned from Switzerland between 2017 and 2018 and deployed through the Conditional Cash Transfer programme under World Bank supervision.
– $321 million repatriated from Jersey in 2020, designated for the Lagos–Ibadan Expressway, Abuja–Kano Road and the Second Niger Bridge.
He argued that attempts to merge both recoveries or portray them as duplicated were misleading.
Malami insisted that his actions as Attorney General were taken in the public interest and in accordance with due process.
“Any claim or investigation suggesting abuse of office or money laundering in relation to the $322.5 million is not rooted in any reasonable ground for suspicion. It is neither supported by facts nor by logic,” he said.
He affirmed his willingness to cooperate with the investigation, stating:
“The allegations remain baseless, illogical and entirely devoid of substance. I remain confident that truth, law and reason will ultimately prevail.”
