Malami Says N2 Billion From Recovered Loot Was Not Paid To His Office

The Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN) has denied that the alleged N2 billion was paid to his office from the recovered loot.

The denial was contained in a statement issued by the Special Assistant on Media and Public Relations to the Office of the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Umar Jibrilu Gwandu.

The communiqué maintained that before the repatriation of all the recovered assets, Nigeria and relevant countries signed a memorandum of understanding as to where the monies would be put to “and the government has been working in compliance with all the provisions of multi-national agreements reached”.

The Minister added that it was based on the application of the said funds in line with the agreements that earn Nigeria a reputation among the international committee of nations, adding that this translated into further recoveries.

He said the Federal Government has a designated account at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for all the recovered assets, saying that neither he as a person nor as Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, has never received any funds from the recovered assets.

The AGF then challenged any person with concrete evidence of such payment to either him or his office to present their evidence publicly.

Earlier in the week, a House of Representatives panel said the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) illegally paid N2 billion to Abubakar Malami, attorney-general of the federation (AGF), from recovered loot.

At its sitting on Tuesday, the house ad hoc committee probing the status of recovered loot queried Malami on the funds which they said they never approved as a budgetary allocation.

The lawmakers cited a letter from the CBN which indicated that the apex bank directed the release of the funds following a request made for the money to be used to prosecute terror suspects.

They also challenged the Minister of Justice for allegedly requesting payment of approved solicitors’ fees from the recovered assets, a claim which Malami utterly denied.