Investigators have reportedly linked a bulk of the wealth of Abubakar Malami, the former attorney-general of the federation, to a number of sources.
TheCable in a report said that at the top of the list were Paris Club refunds made to states, unpaid loans taken from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) under the anchor borrowers programme, and the restitution of Abacha loot to Nigeria.
Malami has been detained by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) ahead of his arraignment before a federal high court in Abuja.
Properties estimated at over N200 billion have been traced to Malami.
The assets are believed to have been acquired when he was attorney-general under former President Muhammadu Buhari from 2015 to 2023.
He has denied all allegations in statements by his media team, alleging political persecution and promising to defend himself in court.
PARIS CLUB REFUNDS
On the legal advice of Malami, the federal government had decided to deduct $418 million from state allocations as payment to consultants over the Paris Club refund.
Nigeria had exited the Paris Club of creditors in 2005 after paying $12 billion in exchange for a write-off of $18 billion of its $30 billion debts accumulated from the early 1980s.
However, the federal government, under former President Obasanjo, paid the $12 billion from the federation purse regardless of how much was owed by the federal, state and local governments to the creditors.
After the states protested, it was decided that they should be refunded since most of the debts were taken by the federal government — with most states not owing foreign creditors.
Consultants were engaged by the federal government to calculate how much was to be refunded to the states, and they charged a commission in excess of $400 million.
The Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) opposed the arrangement, but Malami insisted that the consultants must be paid from state allocations, to be deducted at source.
In a media spat between 2021 and 2022, the NGF accused Malami of pursuing “selfish interest” and alleged that he was working for the consultants rather than in the national interest.
“We’re constrained by the manner in which the honorable attorney-general has been going around various media houses and purporting to create the impression that this is a liability to which governors had committed themselves to and agreed to, even though he is very much aware that that’s not the case,” the NGF said.
“And we reject all of the claims that he has made on this issue. And we also insist that states will not give up on insisting that these purported claims are fraudulent and will not stand as far as governors are concerned and we would take every constitutional and legal means to ensure that these purported consultancy are fully litigated upon by the highest court in the land.”
After initially stopping payment, Buhari later gave his approval, much to the disappointment of the governors.
EFCC investigators have traced the bulk of Malami’s alleged sudden wealth to kickbacks from the deal, sources in the know told TheCable.
ANCHOR BORROWERS’ PROGRAMME
In 2015, the CBN launched the anchor borrowers programme (ABP) — a development finance initiative to boost local food production, create jobs, and reduce food imports.
The ABP was to provide farmers with farm inputs such as seeds, fertiliser and cash for labour, to enable them to increase yields and supply processors.
This was to create a value chain linkage from farm to market and supporting food.
Investigators discovered that Malami used the name of one of his wives, Hajiya Bashir Asabe, to get a N4 billion loan, which was never repaid.
The wife has now been charged to court along with him.
The CBN dispensed over N1 trillion on the ABP and is yet to recover over N600 billion, fuelling speculation that a significant portion of the disbursements might have been slush fund for politicians. [Culled from TheCable]
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