Former Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, SAN, has denied allegations by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) that he duplicated an already completed process in the recovery of the $322.5 million Abacha loot.
In a detailed response issued through his media aide, Mohammed Bello Doka, Malami described the claims of abuse of office and money laundering as “baseless, illogical and wholly devoid of substance.”
According to him, the EFCC’s inquiry is premised on the assumption that Swiss lawyer Enrico Monfrini had already concluded the recovery of the $310 million Abacha funds—later rising with interest to $322.5 million—before Malami assumed office in 2015. Malami said this claim collapses under scrutiny.
He noted that a recovery is only considered completed when funds are lodged into the Federation Account, adding that as at 2016, no such lodgement had occurred. “There was therefore no completed recovery in existence, and nothing whatsoever to duplicate,” he stated.
Malami further revealed that in December 2016, several lawyers, including Monfrini, applied to be engaged for the same recovery, contradicting the claim that Monfrini had already concluded the process years earlier. He said Monfrini requested a $5 million upfront payment and success fees of up to 40 percent, later reduced to 20 percent—terms the Buhari administration rejected in line with its policy of limiting success fees to 5 percent with no advance payments.
The former minister said engaging a Nigerian law firm at a 5 percent success fee saved the country between 15 and 35 percent of the recovered funds, amounting to between ₦76.8 billion and ₦179.2 billion at prevailing exchange rates, as well as averting an unjustifiable $5 million upfront demand.
He also clarified that separate tranches of Abacha loot were recovered during his tenure, including $322.5 million repatriated from Switzerland in 2017–2018, monitored by the World Bank and civil society groups under the National Social Investment Programme, and another $321 million from Jersey in 2020 earmarked for major infrastructure projects such as the Lagos–Ibadan Expressway, Abuja–Kano Road, and the Second Niger Bridge.
Malami described current attempts to conflate these recoveries or portray them as duplications as “misleading” and politically motivated. He thanked his supporters nationwide, vowing to stand firm in the face of what he called a “political witch-hunt.”
He concluded that the allegations against him “remain baseless, illogical and entirely devoid of substance,” expressing confidence that “truth, law and reason will ultimately prevail.”
