REWIND: In 2016, Malami hired two lawyers for $17m to recover Abacha loot — despite near-completed repatriation
In 2016, Abubakar Malami, former attorney-general of the federation (AGF), hired the services of two Nigerian lawyers — Oladipo Okpeseyi and Temitope Isaac Adebayo — for the repatriation of $321 million stolen by Sani Abacha, the former military head of state.
Malami engaged the two lawyers barely one year after he assumed office to act on his behalf in a suspicious move as the country incurred additional four percent of repatriated funds from commission and professional fees.
The repatriation of the stolen funds started before the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari in 2015.
The money had been recovered and frozen in 2013 under former President Goodluck Jonathan but the repatriation process was stalled in 2015 following a lawsuit filed by the Abachas.
From 2013 to 2014, the federal government had engaged the services of Swiss lawyers, Enrico Monfrini and Christian Luscher, to recover the stolen funds from Liechtenstein and Luxembourg — and domiciled the monies with the attorney-general of Switzerland.
Nigeria had paid four percent of the recovered Luxemburg assets as professional fees and expenses to the foreign lawyers, in addition to roughly $6.8 million in fees paid to Monfrini for the Liechtenstein recoveries.
Since all the fees had been paid by Nigeria, it was expected that Malami, who was the then AGF, would sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Swiss authorities and commit to an undertaking that the funds would be properly utilised.
However, in December 2017, TheCable reported that Malami, in what appeared to be a suspicious move, engaged the services of the two Nigerian lawyers, which cost the country $16.9 million as commission and professional fees from the recovered funds.
TheCable reported that Malami engaged the two lawyers to duplicate the job of the Swiss lawyers and get their own cut from the already done deal.
Okpeseyi and Adebayo were lawyers to the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) — the legacy party of Buhari — that merged to form the current All Progressives Congress (APC). Malami was legal adviser to CPC.
A senior official of the ministry of justice had told TheCable that “this is a case of re-looting Abacha loot”.
“A simple letter from the office of our attorney-general of the federation to the Swiss attorney-general requesting the repatriation of the funds to Nigeria consequent upon the signing of an MoU was all that was required to consummate the deal,” the official had said.
Following TheCable’s report on the suspicious engagement of the two lawyers, an article apparently sponsored to discredit the platform alleged that Monfrini was asking for an additional 20 percent to “complete the job”.
Malami allegedly made a counter offer of five percent which Monfrini rejected, and this reportedly prompted Malami to engage the services of two Nigerian lawyers.
However, Monfrini, in an email sent to TheCable in April 2018, denied the allegation, while describing it as a “lie”.
“I never had the audacity to claim for additional fees. This figure of 20% is simply invented. I didn’t reject any proposal made by Mr Malami since my fees were already paid a long time before Mr Malami’s appointment as attorney general,” the lawyer said.
Monfrini also told TheCable in a series of interviews that hiring the new lawyers was needless because he had already completed the task.
Recently, Malami reiterated the allegation that Monfrini reportedly demanded additional 40 percent of the recovered loot, which was renegotiated to 20 percent.
In December 2017, Nigeria and Switzerland sealed an MoU for the return of $321 million traced to Abacha.
RECENT DEVELOPMENT
Last week, Malami honoured an invitation from the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
In a post published across his social media accounts on November 29, the former AGF said his engagement with the anti-graft agency “was successful”, adding that he has been scheduled for “further engagement”.
Subsequently, Malami said EFCC asked him questions pertaining to the recovery of Abacha loot and the engagement of lawyers.
