Malami Implicated $1,115 Billion , Ajaokuta, Mambilla, Paris Club Deals
Abubakar Malami, SAN, was among the select few ministers who served for eight years under the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari.
He held the position of Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, navigating through numerous controversial scenarios. Malami harbored aspirations of becoming governor in his home state of Kebbi but abandoned these ambitions when he chose not to resign from his ministerial role, following President Buhari’s directive for any cabinet members seeking elective positions to step down.
Just two years after leaving office as Minister of Justice and AGF under an APC-led federal government, Abubakar Malami resigned his membership in the All Progressives Congress and joined the Atiku Abubakar-led ADC coalition.
Malami asserted that his transition to the ADC was not driven by political ambition, but rather a commitment to helping Nigeria embark on a new path.
However, a 2023 report by The Cable reveals that Abubakar Malami is under investigation for five major corruption transactions that allegedly took place during his tenure as Attorney-General of the Federation, with accusations of his complicity. These corruption scandals include:
1. Facilitating a needless payment of $496 million to Global Steel Holdings Ltd (GSHL) as settlement for the termination of the Ajaokuta Steel concession, despite the Indian company having waived all claims for compensation in 2013.
2. Corruption in the sale of assets worth billions of naira forfeited to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) by politically exposed persons.
3. Facilitating the award of a $418 million judgment debt to dubious consultants who claimed to have facilitated the Paris Club refunds to the 36 states, despite the Governors Forum’s insistence that these consultants did not perform any verifiable work for the states.
4. Instigating an agreement to pay Sunrise Power $200 million compensation in its dispute with the federal government over the Mambilla power project, which President Buhari declined to approve.
5. Engaging a legal firm to write a letter to the Swiss government requesting the transfer of $321 million Abacha loot from Switzerland to Nigeria and allegedly paying the consultants $17 million as a legal fee for a simple letter his ministry could have written.
Four out of these five transactions amount to a cumulative sum of $1.12 billion.
Ajaokuta Steel’s Bizarre $496 Million Settlement in 2022
The saga of the multi-billion dollar Ajaokuta Steel has been fraught with controversies and relentless attempts to exploit Nigeria since 2004 when Global Steel was granted concession rights to the Ajaokuta Steel Company Limited (ASCL) and the National Iron Ore Mining Company (NIOMCO), Itakpe, by the Obasanjo administration.
However, President Yaradua, in June 2008, revoked Global Steel’s 10-year Ajaokuta concession, citing the company’s involvement in asset stripping and its failure to bring any investment into the company four years into the concession. Global Steel’s concession for NIOMCO was also terminated.
The company subsequently dragged Nigeria before an international arbitration panel.
After facing potential criminal charges for asset stripping in Ajaokuta Steel, the promoters of Global Steel relinquished their claims to Ajaokuta Steel.
In 2016, President Buhari approved a modified concession agreement allowing Global Steel to retain only NIOMCO in Itakpe. The agreement was executed in 2017, with then-Vice President Osinbajo signing on behalf of Nigeria.
However, in 2020, Global Steel unexpectedly threatened to return to arbitration against Nigeria at the ICC, Paris, regarding the canceled Ajaokuta Steel concession.
This was kept from public knowledge, with revelations suggesting that Global Steel deliberately restarted the case against Nigeria in collusion with some government officials.
Global Steel claimed over $5.2 billion in damages.
In September 2022, Malami’s ministry (eight months before the end of Buhari’s tenure) announced that the federal government had reached a $496 million settlement with Global Steel. Malami expedited approvals, and the federal government began disbursing the funds in two installments.
The first tranche of $250 million was released on September 15, 2022. Subsequent payments were made in late 2022 and early 2023, completing the agreed amount of $496 million.
Anti-corruption agencies are reportedly investigating Malami’s involvement in the alleged conspiracy with Global Steel.
Mambilla Power Project: The Dubious $200 Million Settlement Deal with Sunrise Power and Transmission Company Ltd
In early 2020, AGF Malami agreed on behalf of the federal government to pay Sunrise Power and Transmission Company Limited (SPTCL) $200 million as a “final settlement” of the dispute over the Mambilla power project in Taraba State. He also agreed to pay a penalty of 10 percent in case of a default in fulfilling the settlement agreement.
Sunrise had previously requested an $80 million settlement only to withdraw its arbitration claim against Nigeria in France over an alleged breach of contract.
However, Fashola, who was Minister of Power at the time, insisted there was no breach of contract as Sunrise had not done any work to warrant such a demand or arbitration. He also questioned the integrity of the contract, as there was no record of FEC approval when the said contract was allegedly awarded in May 2003.
Fortunately, President Muhammadu Buhari refused to pay the $200 million settlement to Sunrise. In a reply to Malami dated Monday, April 20, Buhari stated, “FG does not have USD 200 million to pay SPTCL.” The arbitration case is still ongoing.
$17 Million Abacha Loot Legal Fee to Lawyers Linked to Malami
In 1999, the federal government engaged the services of a Swiss lawyer, Enrico Monfrini, to assist Nigeria in tracing, identifying, freezing, and recovering all looted funds linked to the late military Head of State, Gen. Sani Abacha. After seven years of work, including investigations and litigation across various countries and jurisdictions, the Swiss lawyer helped Nigeria recover $321 million from Luxembourg banks.
The recovered funds were held by the government of Switzerland in 2014, pending a final request for transfer from the Nigerian government. Monfrini and other lawyers involved in the recovery were compensated, with the Swiss lawyer receiving approximately $12 million as commission.
However, AGF Malami, instead of writing directly to the Swiss authorities to request the transfer of the already recovered funds to Nigeria, engaged two Nigerian lawyers who were his associates, Oladipo Okpeseyi and Temitope Adebayo, to write a letter to the Swiss government. They were paid $17 million as “professional fees” for writing the letter.
Controversial $418 Million Paris Club Refund Consultancy Fee
Some consultants, who claimed to have assisted the states in calculating their share of the Paris Club refunds, sued the federal government, demanding payment of their fees. The state governors vigorously disputed the consultants’ claims, demanding evidence of the purported work they performed.
As AGF, Malami pushed for an out-of-court settlement with the consultants and agreed that the states would pay $418 million to the consultants, with the funds deducted from their federation allocations over time.
Despite protests from the Nigerian Governors Forum, Malami convinced the then-Minister of Finance, Zainab Ahmed, to issue promissory notes to the consultants in 2021.
However, under the Tinubu administration, the new Attorney General of the Federation, Lateef Fagbemi, successfully approached the federal High Court in a suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/896/2023 to restrain the consultants from transacting with the promissory notes.
Shady Sale of Properties Recovered from Politically Exposed Persons
Former AGF Abubakar Malami was implicated in a scandal involving the fraudulent sale of assets forfeited to the federal government by individuals undergoing corruption trials. A close associate of Malami, Ladidi Mohammed, who headed the Asset Recovery and Management Unit in the Ministry of Justice under Malami, was investigated by the EFCC in August 2022 for fraudulently selling off recovered assets worth billions of naira.
She reportedly informed the EFCC that she acted based on instructions from the former Attorney-General of the Federation.
