The former Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, has strongly rejected accusations leveled by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) concerning the repatriation of the $322.5 million Abacha loot. Malami labeled the EFCC’s claims as “baseless, illogical and unsupported by facts.”
Malami recently appeared before the EFCC on Friday, the 28th of November, 2025, for interrogation.
Reports indicate that following his appearance, he was released and given new dates to return for further questioning.
The anti-graft agency’s investigation centers on allegations of abuse of office and money laundering, specifically looking into the alleged duplication in the recovery of the Abacha loot.
In a comprehensive statement released on Sunday, the 30th of November, 2025, Malami clarified the basis of the EFCC’s inquiry, stating it was premised on the belief that a Swiss lawyer, Enrico Monfrini, had completed the recovery before he assumed office in 2015.
However, Malami argued that this core allegation “collapses when compared with documented facts.”
He fundamentally disagreed with the notion that recovery was finished simply by court action. According to him, the recovery of illicit funds “can only be deemed completed when the money is lodged into the Federation Account.” He stressed that as of 2016, when the administration of President Buhari renewed efforts on the matter, “no such lodgement had been been made.”
To further contradict the EFCC’s timeline, Malami pointed out that in December 2016, “several lawyers, including Monfrini, applied to be engaged for the same recovery,” an action he noted “contradicts the idea that the process had been concluded years earlier.”
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Malami also detailed the financial implications of Monfrini’s terms. He explained that Monfrini initially requested a “$5 million upfront payment and a 40 per cent success fee,” which was later reduced to 20 per cent. The government ultimately rejected these terms, adhering to a policy that mandated “no advance deposits should be paid and that fees must not exceed 5 per cent.” In a move Malami highlighted as fiscally responsible, “a Nigerian law firm was eventually appointed on a 5 per cent success fee,” resulting in significant savings.
This decision saved the country an amount “between 15 and 35 per cent of the recovered funds, amounting to tens of billions of naira at current exchange rates.”
Addressing the allegation of duplication, Malami took pains to clarify that the Abacha loot repatriated during his tenure consisted of two distinct and separate tranches: $322.5 million was “repatriated from Switzerland between 2017 and 2018,” which was allocated to Conditional Cash Transfers under the National Social Investment Programme, with oversight from the World Bank and civil society groups; and $321 million was “repatriated from Jersey in 2020,” and this sum was specifically earmarked for major infrastructure projects including the Lagos–Ibadan Expressway, Abuja–Kano Road and the Second Niger Bridge.
Malami concluded by asserting that attempts to “conflate the tranches or suggest duplication do not reflect the facts,” and he maintained that all his actions as Attorney General were executed “transparently and in the public interest,” reiterating that the allegations against him “lack any reasonable basis.”