By Ayorinde Oluokun/Abuja
Former Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice Abubakar Malami SAN, has described the petition filed against him over recovery of $310 million Abacha loot as baseless and illogical.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had on the 28th of November 2025 invited Malami over the petition.
However, the former Minister was released on bail after spending some hours with the anti-graft agency
In a statement signed by Mohammed Bello Doka, his Special Assistant on Media, Malami confirmed that he was queried by operatives of EFCC during the visit over alleged duplication in the recovery of the $310 million Abacha loot.
According to him, witb the accrual of interest, the Abacha loot has risen to about $322.5million at the time it was eventually recovered for the federal Government.
Malami said the EFCC accused him of abuse of office and money laundering in the recovery of the funds.
EFCC, according to Malami, claimed that
the recovery of the funds had already been completed by a Swiss lawyer, Mr. Enrico Monfrini before he assumed office in 2015.
He said based on this premise, the anti-graft agency alleged that he merely duplicated an already concluded recovery process in order to introduce other lawyers who would, in turn, give him kickbacks.
“This allegation collapses immediately when subjected to facts and elementary logic. The facts, mostly documented, were referred to in my response to the interrogatories raised by the commission,” Malami said while faulting the claim.
Malami noted that recovery of illicit funds can legally be said to have been completed upon the actual lodgement of recovered funds into the Federation Account.
On the contrary, he noted, that as at 2016, when the Buhari administration initiated the process repatriating the $310 million (later $322.5 million with interest), there was no lodgement of any such funds into the Federation Account.
“There was therefore no completed recovery in existence, and nothing whatsoever to duplicate,” he said.
Further backing up his claim, Malami noted that in December 2016, several lawyers applied to be engaged for the recovery of these same funds — Mr. Monfrini himself included.
“It is entirely illogical for a lawyer to apply in December 2016 to be engaged to recover funds he purportedly recovered two years earlier. That singular fact exposes the internal contradiction and absurdity of the EFCC’s narrative,” he said.
Malami noted that in his application, Mr. Monfrini demanded for upfront on account deposit of $5 million and a success fee of 40 per cent of the recovered sum.
The former AGF said Monfrini later unilaterally reduced his demand to 20% upon realizing the impossibility of the 40% demand flying.
“These terms were rightly rejected in line with the clear policy of the Buhari administration that no “on account”deposits would be paid to recovery agents and that success fees must not exceed 5 percent of recovered assets,” he said.
He added that following this, a Nigerian Law firm was engaged on a transparent, all-inclusive five percent success fee basis, with no advance on account deposit.
“By this decision, Nigeria was saved at least 15 percent of the recovered assets when compared to Mr. Monfrini’s 20 percent demand, and as much as 35 percent when placed against his earlier proposals. Nigeria was also saved the upfront and unjustifiable $5 million deposit demanded by Mr. Monfrini.
“At an average exchange rate of ₦1,600 to the dollar, a 15 percent saving on $320 million amounts to approximately ₦76.8 billion, while a 35 percent saving translates to about ₦179.2 billion. These are concrete, measurable benefits to the Nigerian state.
“Accordingly, any claim or investigation suggesting abuse of office or money laundering in relation to the $322.5 million is not rooted in any reasonable ground for suspicion. It is neither supported by facts nor by logic.
“The constitutional discretion of the Honourable Attorney-General of the Federation in matters of recovery of illicit funds is exercised strictly in the public interest and in the interest of justice. In the circumstances of this case, that discretion was exercised transparently and responsibly, saving Nigeria between 15 percent and 35 percent of the recovered assets and avoiding unlawful or unaccounted expenditures,” he said.
Malami also added that there are two distinct tranches of Abacha loot he recovered as Attorney General of the federation.
He listed the recoveries to include $322.5 million repatriated from Switzerland in 2017–2018.
He noted that the recovery was deployed through the National Social Investment Programme for the Conditional Cash Transfers programme and monitored by the World Bank and civil society organizations out of commitment of the Buhari’s Government to entrench transparency and accountability.
Malami added that he was also instrumental to the recovery of another trench of about $321 million repatriated in 2020 from the Island of Jersey, with United States and Swiss involvement.
He noted that the money was earmarked for major infrastructure projects including the Lagos–Ibadan Expressway, Abuja–Kano Road and the Second Niger Bridge, under project-based monitoring arrangements.
‘Any attempt to conflate these distinct recoveries or to portray a lawful, cost-saving recovery process as duplication is misleading.
“In conclusion, 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,” he said.
Source; PM News