Reps accuse Malami of ‘receiving’ funds from recovered loot

Abubakar Malami

Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami on Tuesday May 25 appeared before the House of Reps committee investigating the status of recovered loots, after failing to show up on Monday May 24.

Malami during the appearance, reportedly blamed the non-passage of the crimes bill, an executive bill which was forwarded to the National Assembly in 2017, for lack of coordination of the recovered loots.

He said: “When we came in, we realised that there was no legislative framework on recovered loots. We resolved to send a bill to the National Assembly. I regret to state that the legislative framework has not been passed. If the National Assembly had passed the bill, we will not be in this position.”

The AGF was however accused of being complicit in the funding of the budget of his office with money from the recovered loots instead of the consolidated revenue.

Adejoro Adeogun, the chairman of the committee said;

“The law is that every revenue should be transferred to the Consolidated Revenue Account. Has the office of the attorney general ever received any fund from the recovered loots account?”

Malami responded by saying;

“The office of the attorney general has never at any time received any kobo from that account, not even the cost of collection. The office of the attorney general is not a recipient of a dime from the recovered loot.”

Adeogun Adeogun however confronted him with bank statement from CBN showing that his office allegedly received looted funds.

“I am going to show you a statement of account from the CBN, showing payment to your office on the 20th February 2017.”

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According to Premium Times, after Malami failed to explain his position satisfactorily to the lawmakers, the Accountant General of the Federation, Idris Ahmed who was present during the back and forth came to his aid.

The publication reported that Mr Idris said the attorney general did no wrong, explaining that under the Tertiary Single Account (TSA), all accounts are the same. According to Mr Idris, the consolidated account and recovered loots are all subsets of the TSA.