Former Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, SAN, has pushed back strongly against allegations by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission accusing him of duplicating the recovery of the $310 million Abacha loot, which later totalled $322.5 million with accrued interest.
In a statement signed by his media aide, Mohammed Doka, Malami confirmed that he honoured an EFCC invitation on November 28, 2025, over allegations of abuse of office and money laundering. According to him, both charges “collapsed” when examined against verifiable facts.
He maintained that the EFCC’s claim that he duplicated a recovery process allegedly completed by Swiss lawyer Enrico Monfrini was unfounded. “This allegation collapses immediately when subjected to facts and elementary logic,” he said.
Malami insisted that no funds had been lodged into the Federation Account before he assumed office in 2015, noting that without such lodgement, no recovery could be considered completed. He further disclosed that Monfrini applied in December 2016 to be re-engaged for the same recovery—an action he said contradicted the EFCC’s narrative.
He added that the terms requested by Monfrini — a $5 million upfront payment and a success fee initially set at 40 per cent — were rejected by the Buhari administration. A Nigerian law firm was instead contracted on a 5 per cent success fee, which Malami said saved the country billions of naira.
Highlighting the recoveries handled under his tenure, Malami listed the $322.5 million from Switzerland channelled into Conditional Cash Transfers under World Bank supervision, and the $321 million from Jersey allocated to major infrastructure projects such as the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, the Abuja-Kano Road, and the Second Niger Bridge.
He argued that conflating these separate recoveries amounted to misrepresentation. According to him, all actions taken in his role as Attorney-General were guided solely by public interest.
Describing the allegations against him as a political attack, Malami thanked his supporters and expressed confidence that the investigation would clear his name. “The allegations remain baseless, illogical and entirely devoid of substance. I remain confident that truth, law and reason will ultimately prevail,” he said.
