Former Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, has responded to his recent invitation by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), dismissing the allegations levelled against him as baseless, illogical and entirely devoid of substance.
Malami explained that the EFCC’s inquiry, conducted on 28 November, centred on claims of an alleged duplication in the recovery of the $310 million Abacha loot, an amount that later rose to about $322.5 million with accrued interest and focused on two issues: abuse of office and money laundering.
He addressed the EFCC’s core contention that, upon his assumption of office in 2015, the recovery had already been completed by Swiss lawyer Enrico Monfrini, and that Malami duplicated the process to introduce other lawyers for kickbacks.
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Malami refuted this, stating that a recovery is legally concluded only when the recovered funds are actually lodged into the federation account.
He stressed that as of 2016, when the Buhari administration initiated the process for the $322.5 million recovery, no such lodgement had been made.
According to him, there was no completed recovery in existence at the time—and therefore nothing to duplicate.
Malami further noted that the EFCC’s claim is contradicted by the fact that in December 2016, Monfrini himself applied to be re-engaged for the recovery of the same funds.
He described it as entirely illogical for a lawyer to seek re-engagement to recover funds he allegedly recovered two years earlier.
He revealed that Monfrini’s proposal included an upfront deposit of $5 million and a success fee of 40%, later revised to 20%.
Malami said these terms were rejected because the Buhari administration maintained a strict policy that no on-account deposits would be paid and that success fees must not exceed 5% of recovered assets.
Consequently, a Nigerian law firm was engaged on a transparent, all-inclusive 5% success-fee arrangement.
Malami said this decision saved Nigeria at least 15% of the recovered assets compared to Monfrini’s 20% proposal—amounting to an estimated ₦76.8 billion at an average exchange rate of ₦1,600 to the dollar.
Against Monfrini’s initial 40% demand, he added, the savings amounted to roughly ₦179.2 billion.
Malami also clarified that separate tranches of Abacha loot were recovered during his tenure.
He noted that $322.5 million was repatriated from Switzerland between 2017 and 2018 and deployed through the National Social Investment Programme, specifically for Conditional Cash Transfers, with the World Bank providing monitoring oversight.
He added that about $321 million was repatriated in 2020 from the Island of Jersey, with the involvement of the United States and Switzerland, and earmarked for major infrastructure projects such as the Lagos–Ibadan Expressway, the Abuja–Kano Road and the Second Niger Bridge.
He insisted that the allegations against him lack any reasonable basis for suspicion and represent an attempt either to conflate distinct recoveries or to mischaracterise a lawful, cost-saving process as duplication.
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Malami expressed confidence that truth, law and reason would ultimately prevail over what he described as a political witch-hunt and an act of intimidation.
