Local lawyers recovered Abacha loot— AGF, Malami, SAN

…says no amount of blackmail can stop loot recovery

The Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice,
Abubakar Malami, SAN, yesterday insisted that local and not foreign
lawyers recovered the Abacha loot from Switzerland. Malami, in an
interview with New Telegraph in Kano, spoke against the backdrop of
controversies trailing the payment of the Nigerian lawyers, who
recovered the loot. Malami also added that no amount of blackmail
would stop the Federal Government from further recovering loots
outside the country.

According to him: “Well, in addressing the issue of payment to
the lawyers, it is important to take you through the antecedent of
assets and money recovery before even the coming of this
government. Originally, there is a constitutional provision that
says all assets and funds recovered should go into the Federal
Government’s consolidated account before anything is done over
it.

So, there is that constitutional provision, but before the
coming of Buhari administration, such provision was being observed
by the previous governments in breach, in the sense that payment
particularly for lawyers are deducted; particularly professional
fees for lawyers were being deducted from the source, even the
money was confirmed by the Federal Government that was the
prevailing situation before this government. “And the amount that
was paid then as professional fees went between 10 to 20 per
cent.

So, when this government came in, President Buhari sought for my
opinion on the percentage payment on recovered funds and I
suggested that the reasonable amount that could be charged for
services rendered, should be actually not above 5 per cent, looking
at the volume of the money concerned and I equally suggested that
in the interest of transparency, all money should first get into
the consolidated Federal Government account and then, thereafter,
processes should be conducted and consummated by the Ministry of
Finance. “And I equally suggested to Mr. President that we should
converge and accommodate certain organizations so that things would
be done transparently and the world would know what we are doing is
on a standard of transparency and accountability. Mr. President
graciously accepted my proposals relating to the bringing in of
professional bodies, payment of recovered money into the
consolidated account and the accommodation of civil society
organizations.

We now put it up that all recovery agents that are interested in
the exercise should submit their proposals for the recovery plans.
“It was against this background that a lot of lawyers, both local
and foreign filed in their applications and proposals for the
recovery. Of particular interest is the $321million you are talking
about. The key lawyers that showed interest are one Recho Malfrini,
a foreign lawyer and then one other lawyer by name Oladipo Okpeseyi
(SAN).

A point of interest with the regard to the foreign lawyer Richor
was that his application was facilitated by a former President.”
Speaking on the role of the foreign lawyer, Malami said there is an
agreement between this government and Malfrini to make
recovery.

And being paid at the rate of 20-30 per cent and his deduction
made at source and the agreement includes that no payment should be
done to the coffers of the Federal Government is made till his
money is paid. He said that it was not clear what services the
lawyer rendered, “whether this $321 million was part of his
facilitation. But a point of interest is that as at the time this
government came in, the $321 million was not paid by the Swiss
government. It was a subject of judicial litigation pending before
a court. So, that is the crux of the matter.” “Now when an
application was filed by Malfrini among others asking for 20-30 per
cent as against the conventional 5 per cent approved by the Federal
Government, still I wrote a letter to Mr. President to consider
Malfrini against the background that he was part of the recovery
processes. I also tried to convince Mr. President to allow him a
special concession of having 10-15 per cent.

Mr. President reluctantly considered my plea. “So, a letter of
engagement was generated for him, but Ricoh Malfrini rejected the
offer and now stated that he rejected the offer because of the
complexity associated with the whole thing and wrote that he
rejected the offer, insisting for 20-30 per cent, but Mr. President
refused to grant that offer and now generated another letter. So,
it was against this background that a consortium of lawyers with
Nigerian origin now submitted their proposals and we accepted their
letters and they swung into action.

Arising from that, the money was eventually recovered and then
when the money was recovered and paid to consolidated revenue
account of the Federal Government, they now forwarded a letter
seeking to be paid the 5 per cent professional fees agreed upon. I
generated a letter to the Central Bank seeking for the confirmation
of the payment of the said money into its account. The minister
added: “Armed with the letter from the CBN and their letters of
engagement, I now proposed to the Minister of Finance for the
payment of their fee.” Speaking on the alleged disagreement with
the Minister of Finance, Malami said the payment is being
processed.

…says no amount of blackmail can stop loot recovery

The Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice,
Abubakar Malami, SAN, yesterday insisted that local and not foreign
lawyers recovered the Abacha loot from Switzerland. Malami, in an
interview with New Telegraph in Kano, spoke against the backdrop of
controversies trailing the payment of the Nigerian lawyers, who
recovered the loot. Malami also added that no amount of blackmail
would stop the Federal Government from further recovering loots
outside the country.

According to him: “Well, in addressing the issue of payment to
the lawyers, it is important to take you through the antecedent of
assets and money recovery before even the coming of this
government. Originally, there is a constitutional provision that
says all assets and funds recovered should go into the Federal
Government’s consolidated account before anything is done over
it.

So, there is that constitutional provision, but before the
coming of Buhari administration, such provision was being observed
by the previous governments in breach, in the sense that payment
particularly for lawyers are deducted; particularly professional
fees for lawyers were being deducted from the source, even the
money was confirmed by the Federal Government that was the
prevailing situation before this government. “And the amount that
was paid then as professional fees went between 10 to 20 per
cent.

So, when this government came in, President Buhari sought for my
opinion on the percentage payment on recovered funds and I
suggested that the reasonable amount that could be charged for
services rendered, should be actually not above 5 per cent, looking
at the volume of the money concerned and I equally suggested that
in the interest of transparency, all money should first get into
the consolidated Federal Government account and then, thereafter,
processes should be conducted and consummated by the Ministry of
Finance. “And I equally suggested to Mr. President that we should
converge and accommodate certain organizations so that things would
be done transparently and the world would know what we are doing is
on a standard of transparency and accountability. Mr. President
graciously accepted my proposals relating to the bringing in of
professional bodies, payment of recovered money into the
consolidated account and the accommodation of civil society
organizations.

We now put it up that all recovery agents that are interested in
the exercise should submit their proposals for the recovery plans.
“It was against this background that a lot of lawyers, both local
and foreign filed in their applications and proposals for the
recovery. Of particular interest is the $321million you are talking
about. The key lawyers that showed interest are one Recho Malfrini,
a foreign lawyer and then one other lawyer by name Oladipo Okpeseyi
(SAN).

A point of interest with the regard to the foreign lawyer Richor
was that his application was facilitated by a former President.”
Speaking on the role of the foreign lawyer, Malami said there is an
agreement between this government and Malfrini to make
recovery.

And being paid at the rate of 20-30 per cent and his deduction
made at source and the agreement includes that no payment should be
done to the coffers of the Federal Government is made till his
money is paid. He said that it was not clear what services the
lawyer rendered, “whether this $321 million was part of his
facilitation. But a point of interest is that as at the time this
government came in, the $321 million was not paid by the Swiss
government. It was a subject of judicial litigation pending before
a court. So, that is the crux of the matter.” “Now when an
application was filed by Malfrini among others asking for 20-30 per
cent as against the conventional 5 per cent approved by the Federal
Government, still I wrote a letter to Mr. President to consider
Malfrini against the background that he was part of the recovery
processes. I also tried to convince Mr. President to allow him a
special concession of having 10-15 per cent.

Mr. President reluctantly considered my plea. “So, a letter of
engagement was generated for him, but Ricoh Malfrini rejected the
offer and now stated that he rejected the offer because of the
complexity associated with the whole thing and wrote that he
rejected the offer, insisting for 20-30 per cent, but Mr. President
refused to grant that offer and now generated another letter. So,
it was against this background that a consortium of lawyers with
Nigerian origin now submitted their proposals and we accepted their
letters and they swung into action.

Arising from that, the money was eventually recovered and then
when the money was recovered and paid to consolidated revenue
account of the Federal Government, they now forwarded a letter
seeking to be paid the 5 per cent professional fees agreed upon. I
generated a letter to the Central Bank seeking for the confirmation
of the payment of the said money into its account. The minister
added: “Armed with the letter from the CBN and their letters of
engagement, I now proposed to the Minister of Finance for the
payment of their fee.” Speaking on the alleged disagreement with
the Minister of Finance, Malami said the payment is being
processed.