Former Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, SAN, has dismissed allegations by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission that he duplicated the recovery process of the Abacha loot.
He described the accusations as baseless, illogical and without any real substance.
In a statement released on Sunday and signed by his media aide, Mohammed Doka, Malami confirmed that he honoured an EFCC invitation on November 28, 2025. The commission questioned him over alleged abuse of office and money laundering linked to the recovery of the 310 million dollars, which later increased to 322.5 million dollars with interest.
He said the issues raised by the EFCC did not stand once facts were examined. Malami noted that he had earlier explained that his interaction with the commission went smoothly.
According to him, the EFCC claimed he repeated a recovery process said to have been handled by a Swiss lawyer, Enrico Monfrini, before he assumed office. Malami said the claim had no basis.
“The EFCC’s position is that I duplicated a recovery process allegedly completed by a Swiss lawyer, Mr Enrico Monfrini, before I assumed office. This allegation collapses immediately when subjected to facts and elementary logic,” he said.
He insisted that no recovery could be considered complete until it was paid into the Federation Account, noting that by 2016, there was no evidence that any such funds had been lodged.
“As at 2016, 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 stated.
Malami added that Monfrini himself sought re-engagement in December 2016 for the same task, which he said made the EFCC’s suggestion even more unreasonable.
“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.
He explained that Monfrini asked for a five million dollar upfront payment and a success fee of 40 per cent, later reduced to 20 per cent. The Buhari administration refused the terms. Instead, a Nigerian firm was contracted on a five per cent success fee, a decision he said saved the country between 76.8 billion and 179.2 billion naira.
“These are concrete, measurable benefits to the Nigerian state,” he said.
Malami also outlined the different stages of the Abacha loot he handled. They included 322.5 million dollars from Switzerland between 2017 and 2018, used for conditional cash transfers under World Bank monitoring, and about 321 million dollars recovered from Jersey in 2020 for major road projects such as the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, Abuja-Kano Road and the Second Niger Bridge.
He said mixing up the separate recoveries to create an impression of wrongdoing was misleading.
He added that all decisions taken during his time as Attorney-General were in line with the law and aimed at protecting public interest.
“In the circumstances of this case, that discretion was exercised transparently and responsibly. Any claim suggesting abuse of office or money laundering is not rooted in any reasonable ground for suspicion,” he said.
Malami described the investigation as politically driven and thanked supporters who stood by him.
“Together we shall continue to stand firm, and together we shall triumph against every form of political witch-hunt and intimidation,” he said.
He expressed confidence that the truth would clear him.
“The allegations remain baseless, illogical and entirely devoid of substance. I remain confident that truth, law and reason will ultimately prevail,” he added.
