Abubabar Malami: Caught In Eye Of The Storm
By Dare Odufowoken, Ass. Editor
Abubakar Malami, Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) and current Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF), is always in the news for various reasons, especially in the course of his duty as Nigeria’s Minister of Justice. Last Wednesday, he was credited with a statement that says there is no going back on the federal government’s decision to commence deducting $418million from the 36 states’ accounts to settle their indebtedness to consultants and private firms concerning the Paris and London clubs refund.
This is despite the governors’ opposition to it and the recent order issued by the Federal High Court in Abuja stopping the deduction of the money from the accounts of the 36 states to settle the judgment debts. The debts had accrued from court judgments awarding some consultants and contractors to the states and local governments, various sums of money which currently stand at $418 million. Expectedly, the statement attracted a lot of reactions with some individuals and groups, accusing the Minister of working for consultants instead of defending the interests of the country.
Malami argued that it was too late in the day for the governors, through the Nigerian Governors’ Forum (NGF) to backtrack on the indebtedness having earlier agreed to pay. But the governors, in a reaction that further drew attention to Malami, accused him of backing contractors and private firms by insisting on the payment of the disputed consultancy fees. NGF’s Chairman, Governor Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State, wondered why the AGF was bent on enforcing the payment of the arbitrary consultancy fee when cases relating to the loan refund are still pending in the court.
Clarifying that the disputed fee is $419 million, and not $418 million, as previously claimed by the minister, Fayemi urged Malami to allow the court to determine the case. He further traced the genesis of the controversy to the activities of an illegal faction of the forum, led by former Plateau State Governor Jonah Jang. And express concerns that the minister, who is aware of all the shady details of the case, is on the side of people ‘intent on defrauding the country.” But in spite of the growing opposition to his position on the matter, the AGF is insisting that Nigeria must respect its earlier commitment and pay the claimants.
While that was still on, a fake Chief Superintendent of Police, Lawrence Ajodo, arrested alongside others over the invasion of the residence of Supreme Court’s Justice Mary Odili, called out the Malami with a claim that he is a consultant to the Minister. The suspect however clarified that the AGF did not send them to carry out the invasion. “I am not an officer of the Nigeria Police Force, but I am a consultant for the AGF. He did not send us on the raid on Mrs. Odili’s house,” he said. Not a few people took to the social media to wonder what manner of consultancy services Ajodo could be rendering to the Malami and or his office.
Not to be cornered, the AGF was swift in denying Ajodo and his claims. An outraged Malami asked the Police to also find out those bent on destroying him. He denied ever hiring the fake CSP to consult for him. He said with the array of professionals at his beck and call, only an insane person would believe he would need the services of a fake CSP as a consultant. In a statement signed on his behalf by his Media Aide, Dr. Umar Geandu, the AGF asked Ajodo to disclose where, how, and for what purpose he would keep him as a consultant. He described the suspect as “a drowning man scavenging for a dying partner.”
A few days earlier, the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) had joined those dragging the Minister when it said Malami risks losing the SAN title over the same issue. Olumide Akpata, President of the NBA, described the raid on Justice Odili’s house as egregious, adding that it was reminiscent of how operatives of the Department of State Services in 2016 raided the homes of seven judges and how a former Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Walter Onnoghen (retd.), was “illegally removed from office,” ahead of the 2019 general elections.
Apata vowed that the NBA would stop at nothing to ensure that those behind the latest operation were unmasked and punished, to put a stop to “the assault on the judiciary.” He said the NBA would not accept the flurry of denials by the AGF and security agencies that they knew nothing about the operation. He said the NBA also rejected the panel being set up by the AGF to investigate the matter because the AGF himself has a case to answer and he could not be a judge in his own case. Akpata called on President Muhammadu Buhari to set up an independent panel to investigate the matter.
And as if the above weren’t enough for just one man in a week, news broke that the House of Representatives’ Ad Hoc Committee on Assessment and Status of All Recovered Loots Movable and Immovable Assets from 2002 to 2020 by Agencies of the Federal Government of Nigeria for Effective Efficient Management and Utilisation, is likely to invite the AGF over a claim that he ordered a bank to convert revenue collected in dollars to naira before remittance. Keystone Bank had told the committee that Malami instructed it to remit part of the $136m in its custody in naira while also determining the exchange rate, a revelation that the lawmakers criticised.
The Executive Director, North and Public Sector Directorate, Keystone Bank, Lawal Ahmed, in a presentation before the committee, said, “Our position, as confirmed by the CFO of NNPC, was that we have remitted all the funds that were with us at our last meeting. You asked for clarification regarding some reversals from the statements of account, which we reviewed and confirmed that they were actually failed transactions. We are using NEFT. We sent the money; it reversed and it was sent again. So, it was showing in and out on the statements. It was part of the documents that we submitted.
“You asked for where we got the rates and we provided the letter from the Attorney-General of the Federation directing us to make the payment and the rate with which to transfer. We also submitted that with our letter.” The Chairman of the committee, Adejoro Adeogun, hinted that the committee will further investigate the matter with a view to unraveling the contentious issues therein. Members of the committee called for the invitation of the AGF to defend allegations by Ahmed and other respondents. The Minister is yet to respond to this development.
