By close of work on Tuesday, if no prominent Nigerians come to the aid of former Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, he may be spending indefinite nights, including the two days he had already spent inside the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) detention after being he was allegedly found wanting of several financial crimes while holding public office and not ready to look away on any of the offenses.
From the commission’s body language, it appears there is no longer friendliness from side of the EfCC to Malami after the agency withdrew all privileges previously accorded him and detained him after one of his routine visitation to the agency.
Till all investigations against the former attorney general are concluded and charge before court for prosecution, Malami is not likely to return home anytime soon, according to one the officers from the unit handling the case for the commission.
Malami was accused of multiple offences including abuse of office, criminal diversion of public funds, money laundering, economic sabotage and criminal conspiracy, among other alleged offences committed during his eight years tenure in office under the administration of former President, late Muhammadu Buhari.
Meanwhile, Malami claimed that he was invited by the anti-graft agency because of former head of state, Sanni Abacha loot which had nothing attached to him.
He added that when the Buhari administration initiated the process in 2016, there was no lodgement of any such funds into the Federation Account, saying “there was no completed recovery in existence, and nothing whatsoever to duplicate.”
“The EFCC informed me that its inquiry relates to an alleged duplication in the recovery of the $310 million Abacha loot, which by accrual of interest rose to about $322.5 million as at the time I eventually succeeded in recovering the funds for the federal Government and, flowing from that assumption, two allegations were majorly raised, namely; abuse of office, and Money laundering.
He was invited by the EFCC on November 28, as confirmed by him in a post on his social media handle, saying as “a law-abiding citizen he would honour the invitation.”
Findings by The Guild revealed that the allegations leveled against Malami were more than the claim announced by the legal expert with sources inside EFCC claiming that he was being interrogated towards admitting to offenses that were identified to have been perpetrated through his office.
Sources from the agency revealed that efforts to crack him towards revealing more details on mode of alleged perpetration carried out through his office have become abortive, a development that was said to have forced the EFCC to quickly detain him for more questioning.
The AGF, who was earlier allowed by the EFCC to return home after previous interrogation sessions, was detained after evidence before the anti-corruption agency proved that there were more to what were earlier discovered on Malami.
The EFCC was said to have been reluctant to pursue investigation against Malami but the President’s mandate to the EFCC boss, Ola Olukoyede, after successfully bringing Kogi State Governor, Yahaya Bello, before court over alleged financial misappropriation during his tenure in the state, were that no one should be above the law.
Sources from the Presidency disclosed that President Bola Tinubu ordered that the funds be retrieved from any account the funds might have ended up.
He added that the president would not spare anyone involved in the disappearance of the large chunk of the funds expected to have been spent on provision of public Infrastructure across the country.
Another source from the EFFCC disclosed that Malami will be charged to court from the detention room, which he has already been in since two days now,
“He hounoured an invitation and was asked to be reporting weekly, that was the initial grace given to him, before the EFCC felt he was not supposed to be walking freely after the allegation levelled against him, that it will be injustice to be roaming freeing in the street of Abuja,” he said.
“He will be charged to court, he will remain in detention, the grace the given to him was going home and coming back , but he didn’t stick to that” the source added.
