Investigators have linked a bulk of the wealth of Abubakar Malami, the former attorney-general of the federation, to a number of sources
TheCable reports that at the top of the list are Paris Club refunds made to
states, unpaid loans taken from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) under the
anchor borrowers programme, and the restitution of Abacha loot to Nigeria.
Malami has been detained by the Economic and Financial
Crimes Commission (EFCC) ahead of his arraignment before a federal high court
in Abuja.
Properties estimated at over N200 billion have been traced
to Malami. The assets are believed to have been acquired when he was
attorney-general under former President Muhammadu Buhari from 2015 to 2023.
He has denied all allegations in statements by his media
team, alleging political persecution and promising to defend himself in court.
PARIS CLUB REFUNDS
On the legal advice of Malami, the federal government had
decided to deduct $418 million from state allocations as payment to consultants
over the Paris Club refund.
Nigeria had exited the Paris Club of creditors in 2005 after
paying $12 billion in exchange for a write-off of $18 billion of its $30
billion debts accumulated from the early 1980s.
However, the federal government, under former President
Obasanjo, paid the $12 billion from the federation purse regardless of how much
was owed by the federal, state and local governments to the creditors.
After the states protested, it was decided that they should
be refunded since most of the debts were taken by the federal government — with
most states not owing foreign creditors.
Consultants were engaged by the federal government to
calculate how much was to be refunded to the states, and they charged a
commission in excess of $400 million.
The Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) opposed the arrangement,
but Malami insisted that the consultants must be paid from state allocations,
to be deducted at source.
In a media spat between 2021 and 2022, the NGF accused
Malami of pursuing “selfish interest” and alleged that he was working for the
consultants rather than in the national interest.
“We’re constrained by the manner in which the honorable
attorney-general has been going around various media houses and purporting to
create the impression that this is a liability to which governors had committed
themselves to and agreed to, even though he is very much aware that that’s not
the case,” the NGF said.
“And we reject all of the claims that he has made on this
issue. And we also insist that states will not give up on insisting that these
purported claims are fraudulent and will not stand as far as governors are
concerned and we would take every constitutional and legal means to ensure that
these purported consultancy are fully litigated upon by the highest court in
the land.”
After initially stopping payment, Buhari later gave his
approval, much to the disappointment of the governors.
EFCC investigators have traced the bulk of Malami’s alleged
sudden wealth to kickbacks from the deal, sources in the know disclosed.
ANCHOR BORROWERS’ PROGRAMME
In 2015, the CBN launched the anchor borrowers programme
(ABP) — a development finance initiative to boost local food production, create
jobs, and reduce food imports.
The ABP was to provide farmers with farm inputs such as
seeds, fertiliser and cash for labour, to enable them to increase yields and
supply processors.
This was to create a value chain linkage from farm to market
and supporting food.
Investigators discovered that Malami used the name of one of
his wives, Hajiya Bashir Asabe, to get a N4 billion loan, which was never
repaid.
The wife has now been charged to court along with him.
The CBN dispensed over N1 trillion on the ABP and is yet to
recover over N600 billion, fuelling speculation that a significant portion of
the disbursements might have been slush fund for politicians.
ABACHA LOOT COMMISSION
In 2016, Malami hired the services of two Nigerian lawyers —
Oladipo Okpeseyi and Temitope Isaac Adebayo — for the repatriation of $321
million stolen by Sani Abacha, the former military head of state.
The repatriation of the stolen funds started before the
administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari in 2015.
The monies had been recovered and frozen in 2013 under
former President Goodluck Jonathan, but the repatriation process was stalled in
2015 following a lawsuit filed by the Abachas.
From 2013 to 2014, the federal government had engaged the
services of Swiss lawyers, Enrico Monfrini and Christian Luscher, to recover
the stolen funds from Liechtenstein and Luxembourg — and domiciled the monies
with the attorney-general of Switzerland.
Nigeria had paid four percent of the recovered Luxembourg
assets as professional fees and expenses to the foreign lawyers, in addition to
roughly $6.8 million in fees paid to Monfrini for the Liechtenstein recoveries.
Since all the fees had been paid by Nigeria, it was only
required that Malami, who was the then AGF, would sign a memorandum of
understanding (MoU) with the Swiss authorities and commit to an undertaking
that the funds would be properly utilised.
However, in December 2017, Malami, in a suspicious move,
engaged the services of the two Nigerian lawyers, which cost the country $16.9
million as commission and professional fees from the recovered funds.
Malami engaged the two lawyers to duplicate the job of the
Swiss lawyers and get their own cut from the already done deal.
It is understoond that Okpeseyi and Adebayo have been
detained and interrogated by the EFCC.
“They made useful statements to the EFCC,” a source in the
know revealed.
After the disbursement of the duplicated commission,
payments were said to have been traced to Malami by investigators at the
anti-graft agency.
culled: TheCable
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