Former Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice Abubakar Malami has said the petition submitted against him over the recovery of the $310 million Abacha loot has no basis.
Mr Malami, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, was invited by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on November 28.
He was released on bail after spending hours with operatives of the commission.
In a statement on Sunday signed by his media aide, Mohammed Doka, Malami confirmed that he was questioned over an alleged duplication of the recovery process for the funds, which later rose to $322.5 million with interest.
He said the EFCC accused him of abuse of office and money laundering and claimed that a Swiss lawyer, Enrico Monfrini, had completed the recovery before he assumed office in 2015.
Malami said the claim did not align with facts.
“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 said a recovery is considered complete only when the funds are lodged into the Federation Account.
He said that as of 2016, when the Buhari administration began the repatriation process, there was no evidence of such lodgement.
“There was therefore no completed recovery in existence, and nothing whatsoever to duplicate,” he said.
He added that Monfrini applied in December 2016 to be engaged for the same recovery.
“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,” he said.
Malami said Monfrini demanded a $5 million upfront payment and a success fee of 40 percent, which he later reduced to 20 percent.
He said the Buhari administration rejected the terms and instead engaged a Nigerian law firm on a 5 per cent success-fee arrangement.
“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,” he said.
He said the savings translated to between N76.8 billion and N179.2 billion at an average exchange rate of N1,600 per dollar.
Malami also outlined two distinct tranches of Abacha loot recovered during his tenure.
He listed $322.5 million repatriated from Switzerland between 2017 and 2018 and deployed through the Conditional Cash Transfer programme under World Bank monitoring.
He also referenced $321 million repatriated from Jersey in 2020, which was earmarked for the Lagos–Ibadan Expressway, Abuja–Kano Road and Second Niger Bridge.
“Any attempt to conflate these distinct recoveries or to portray a lawful, cost-saving recovery process as duplication is misleading,” he said.
Abubakar Malami said the asset recovery discretion of the Attorney General was exercised in the public interest.
“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 said he would respond to the investigation as required.
“The allegations remain baseless, illogical and entirely devoid of substance. I remain confident that truth, law and reason will ultimately prevail,” he said.
