Malami rejects EFCC claim, saying allegations of duplicating Abacha recovery are illogical and unsupported after his interrogation

Former Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice Abubakar Malami on Sunday in Abuja dismissed allegations by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission that he duplicated the process leading to the recovery of over three hundred million dollars of Abacha-linked assets, describing the claims as baseless after a formal interrogation by the agency.

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Malami, in a statement signed by his media aide Mohammed Doka, confirmed that the EFCC invited him on 28 November over alleged abuse of office and money laundering tied to the recovery of the sums eventually lodged as 310 million dollars and later 322.5 million dollars with interest.

He said both allegations collapsed once the commission was presented with factual records.

The former minister argued that the EFCC’s central accusation hinged on a narrative that Swiss lawyer Enrico Monfrini had completed the recovery before he assumed office in 2015.

He said this assertion failed simple scrutiny because no funds had been lodged into the Federation Account as at 2016, which meant no completed recovery existed for him to duplicate.

Malami added that Monfrini himself sought re-engagement in December 2016 to pursue the same funds, a development he described as a striking internal contradiction in the commission’s case.

He said it would be illogical for a lawyer to apply for a brief he supposedly concluded two years earlier.

He explained that Monfrini requested a five million dollar upfront deposit and a success fee initially set at forty per cent before later being reduced to twenty per cent.

The Buhari administration rejected these terms and opted instead to appoint a Nigerian law firm at a five per cent success fee, a decision he said saved the country between seventy-six and one hundred and seventy-nine billion naira. He described the saving as a powerful demonstration of fiscal prudence.

Malami also clarified that he oversaw separate tranches of Abacha loot during his tenure. The first was 322.5 million dollars returned from Switzerland between 2017 and 2018 and deployed to Conditional Cash Transfers under a World Bank-supervised transparency mechanism.

The second was about 321 million dollars repatriated from Jersey in 2020 and earmarked for infrastructure projects including the Lagos–Ibadan Expressway, the Abuja–Kano Road and the Second Niger Bridge.

He said attempts to conflate these distinct recoveries amounted to a misleading portrayal of lawful processes.

He stressed that all asset recovery work undertaken by his office was carried out within the constitutional powers of the Attorney-General and in the public interest.

He insisted that no reasonable grounds existed for suspicion of abuse of office or money laundering.

The former minister thanked his supporters nationwide and characterised the ongoing probe as a political witch-hunt designed to smear his record.

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He concluded by expressing confidence that the investigation would vindicate him, saying the allegations were wholly devoid of substance and that truth and reason would ultimately prevail.