Former Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN), has spent his fourth consecutive night in the custody of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission after failing to meet the bail conditions set for him.
Malami has been detained since Monday.
DAILY GAZETTE earlier reported that he is under investigation for 18 alleged offences, including abuse of office and terrorism financing.
Multiple EFCC officials, who requested anonymity because they were not authorised to speak publicly, confirmed on Thursday that the former AGF remained in detention.
“He is still in our custody. He has been here since Monday because he has not met the bail conditions,” one of the sources said.
The former AGF has, however, refuted claims linking him to terrorism financing or the ownership of 46 bank accounts, describing the allegations as “false, baseless, and part of a coordinated media trial.”
In a statement issued by his media aide, Mohammed Bello Doka, Malami said no Nigerian or foreign security agency had ever investigated or accused him of terrorism financing.
“There is no allegation, investigation or charge of terrorism financing against Abubakar Malami, SAN. The claims about ‘46 bank accounts’ are completely fictitious and unsupported by any official record,” the statement read.
He also noted that a retired military officer previously cited in media reports had since clarified that he never accused Malami of sponsoring terrorism.
Malami argued that the allegations were at odds with his work as minister, citing his role in strengthening Nigeria’s anti-money laundering and counterterrorism financing regime, including establishing the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit and championing key legislation in 2022.
He explained that his recent questioning by the EFCC focused primarily on alleged duplication in the recovery of the Abacha loot.
According to him, no recovery process was completed before 2016, and therefore there was nothing to duplicate.
Addressing claims involving a Swiss lawyer who had reportedly sought engagement on the recovery process, Malami said the lawyer reapplied in 2016 demanding fees of up to 40 per cent, an offer rejected by the Buhari administration, which maintained a 5 per cent cap on legal fees.
He added that engaging Nigerian lawyers at the capped rate saved the country “tens of billions of naira.”
Malami further maintained that the various tranches of the Abacha loot repatriated between 2017 and 2020 were handled under separate monitoring arrangements supervised by the World Bank, civil society groups and international partners.
