Former Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN), has denied the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission’s (EFCC) allegations that he duplicated the recovery of the $310 million Abacha loot, describing the claims as “baseless, illogical and wholly devoid of substance.”
In a statement issued by his media aide, Mohammed Bello Doka, Malami said he was invited by the EFCC on November 28, 2025, to respond to questions regarding an alleged duplication of recovered funds, which had grown to $322.5 million with accrued interest by the time they were repatriated during his tenure.
According to Malami, the EFCC’s accusations of abuse of office and money laundering have no legal or factual basis. The commission claimed that Swiss lawyer Enrico Monfrini had already completed the recovery before Malami assumed office in 2015, and that any subsequent recovery efforts constituted duplication intended to benefit other lawyers through kickbacks.
Malami rejected the claims, noting that no funds had been deposited into the Federation Account as of 2016, when the Buhari administration formally began the recovery process. “Recovery can legally be said to have been completed only upon the actual lodgement of funds into the Federation Account. As at 2016, no such lodgement existed. There was therefore no completed recovery and nothing to duplicate,” he said.
He added that several lawyers, including Monfrini, applied in December 2016 to be engaged for the recovery, contradicting the EFCC’s claim that the Swiss lawyer had concluded the work two years earlier. Malami also disclosed that Monfrini demanded a $5 million upfront payment and a 40 percent success fee, later reduced to 20 percent, which the Buhari administration rejected. Instead, a Nigerian law firm was engaged on a 5 percent success fee basis, saving the country between 15 and 35 percent of the recovered funds—equivalent to ₦76.8 billion to ₦179.2 billion at an average exchange rate of ₦1,600 per dollar.
Malami outlined the recoveries during his tenure, including:
- $322.5 million repatriated from Switzerland in 2017–2018, deployed through the National Social Investment Programme for Conditional Cash Transfers and monitored by the World Bank and civil society groups.
- About $321 million recovered from Jersey in 2020, earmarked for major infrastructure projects, including the Lagos–Ibadan Expressway, Abuja–Kano Road, and the Second Niger Bridge.
He insisted that any attempt to conflate these recoveries or allege wrongdoing disregards documented evidence and proper procedure.
Malami described the allegations as a political witch-hunt and thanked his supporters for their “unwavering confidence,” adding, “The allegations of money laundering and abuse of office concerning the $322.5 million Abacha loot remain baseless, illogical and entirely devoid of substance. I remain confident that truth, law and reason will ultimately prevail.”
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