Malami Deserves Credit, Not Witch-Hunt For $322m Abacha Loot Recovery – Group

“Abubakar Malami deserves national accolades,” a socio-political group has told the House of Representatives on Tuesday as one of its committees is set to probe the legal fees payable to lawyers engaged by the Attorney General for the recovery of the $322.5 million Sani Abacha loot from the Swiss government.

The group, which identified itself as the All Progressives Congress (APC) Grassroots Youth for Change, equally said the lawyers engaged by AGF Malami deserve their wages and not a review of the 5% of the recovered loot agreed by the Federal Government as their professional fees before they were engaged.

Speaking through its National Coordinator, Mr. Orlu Henry Manuchimso, the APC group warned against witch-hunt of the Justice Minister who it said worked tirelessly to ensure that the loot was repatriated to Nigerian government’s coffers from Switzerland.

Manuchimso tasked the House Committee, which commences its public hearing on the matter on Wednesday May 23, 2018, on fairness and due diligence in its investigation.

He said, “We sincerely hope that the public hearing into the payment of professional fees to the Nigerian lawyers who travelled and worked assiduously to ensure that the last tranche of $322.5 million Abacha loot was repatriated would not be used as a contrived process to settle scores with the Minister of Justice and AGF.

“For any investigation or inquiry into the Abacha loot recovery to be meaningful, the principal actor, the Swiss lawyer, Mr. Enricho Monfrini who began the process, must be invited to answer some probing questions otherwise the probe would be tantamount to a waste of time and a needless distraction.

“As a matter of concern, our group has since found out that the Minister of Justice and the AGF was open and transparent in the recovery process, and nothing untoward has been done in the engagement of the Nigerian lawyers who have now gained more global exposure and built a good network of relationships in the arduous task of recovering our stolen assets.”

Manuchimso added that “every year, the National Assembly gets between 2 and 5 percent of our yearly budget; many lawmakers who skip sittings get all their entitlements; it will be disingenuous and wicked to crucify Malami for appointing lawyers who diligently worked round the clock to bring into the country $322.5 million that the country had been finding difficult to repatriate since 2014.

“We make bold to say that Malami (SAN) deserves national accolades, while the lawyers deserve their wages just like their foreign counterparts,” he stated.