Efforts by the former Vice President, Abubakar Atiku, Labour Party Presidential candidate, Peter Obi, and other opposition leaders to see the former Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, out of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) cell before arraignment may not yield result after the anti-graft agency recorded a breakthrough on the investigation of the fraud allegations against him.
The achievement, as gathered, has made the EFCC set a new standard in coordinated operation against crime globally, better than the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), after it simultaneously retrieved documents serving as major evidence proving the Kebbi-state born lawyer’s link to the corruption cases allegedly perpetrated while serving under late president Muhammadu Buhari’s administration.
This evidence, which consisted of documents of financial transactions carried out by the legal expert and property acquired during his eight-year stay in office, according to sources, was recovered from his homes in Lagos, Kano, Kebbi states, and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, after a thorough search of the properties.
In a coordinated search on Malami’s property across 10 locations in the three states and FCT, the evidence recovered by EFCC officials was said to be vital evidence that further proved the agency’s claim against the legal expert’s conduct before leaving office.
On Thursday, after a Federal Capital Territory High Court rejected Malam’s bail application, approving his continued detention in the EFCC cell, the Guild embarked on further investigations that revealed the anti-corruption officials recovered the evidence after they stormed over 10 properties simultaneously yesterday to avoid the removal and destruction of the evidence from the buildings owned by Malami after his appointment in 2015.
A senior EFCC official, who spoke to our correspondent after the search on the property across the states, disclosed that the operation was conducted professionally to avoid losing any of the documents that served as evidence to arraign and prosecute Malami before the court.
Residents of the highbrow areas, where the properties were sited, narrated that the EFCC officials stormed the houses quietly to avoid attracting passersby’s attention.
Eyewitnesses added that it was when the officials were leaving that passersby realised that the men who stormed the former Minister’s home and offices were EFCC officials.
They noted that they were seen leaving the premises with documents from the house, saying I do not know what the documents were, but I only realised they were EFCC officials after they had left the building.
An official at the anti-graft agency’s headquarters in Abuja, who did not want his name in public considering that he was not authorised to speak, disclosed that the documents recovered from Malami’s property were those linking the former Attorney-General to several bank accounts that were at variance with the claim earlier made by the legal expert on his financial dealings with local and foreign commercial banks.
According to him, documents relating to companies, bank accounts, and properties in Abuja, Lagos, Kano, and Kebbi States were discovered. And some of the properties include university, secondary and primary schools, hotels, rice milling factory, farms, lands and others acquired within a decade.
Another staff member of the anti-graft agency narrated that the documents removed from Malami’s property were in tonnes, which the EFCC may not have had access to if the investigation and search had not been swift.
She narrated that the officials who searched disclosed that Malami’s relatives tried to prevent the EFCC from having access to the documents, considering their sensitive nature.
According to her, the relatives of the principal suspect were trying to call others at different locations across the four states to move files away, but the efforts could not yield the desired results.
The EFCC officials added that the relatives, who called another location to instruct that documents be moved to avoid the EFCC officials having access to them, were informed that the anti-corruption officials arrived minutes before putting the calls through.
The Guild correspondent learnt that the aim behind the decentralisation of the documents by Malami was to prevent the EFCC from having full access to the documents, indicating locations of his property and other investments.
As gathered, the evidence formed part of the reasons Malami had been allegedly requesting a bail to clean up his tracks before the EFCC got hold of the documents from the buildings.
An official at the Ministry of Justice, who spoke on anonymity, said that the former AGF’s family, particularly the children, conducted suspicious activities considering the huge investments at their disposal within the space of eight years when their father was serving the nation.
It was learnt that the investments began to spring up suddenly in different parts of the country, a development that increased residents’ suspicion about the family’s wealth.
Confirming EFCC’s visit to Malami’s property, his Special Assistant on Media, Mohammed Doka, was carried out without prior notice to the family.
According to the statement made available to newsmen, “The Office of Abubakar Malami wishes to inform Nigerians that immediately after the release of our statement addressing Chapter 9 of the Salami Report, operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) carried out coordinated raids on our offices and on the private residences of Abubakar Malami, in Abuja and Kebbi State.
“These actions were carried out without prior notice and were expressly directed at searching for documents allegedly connected to Chapter 9 of the Salami Report.
“Threats to safety and the rule of law.. We consider this development deeply alarming. Coming on the heels of a public call for the EFCC Chairman’s recusal on grounds of bias arising from Chapter 9, these raids raise grave concerns about intimidation, retaliation, and the safety of our staff and of Abubakar Malami.
“We hereby place Nigerians and the international community on notice that any harm to our personnel or to Abubakar Malami will be solely attributable to this pattern of conduct”.
