Former Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malamihas revealed that the ministry under his supervision has so far recovered $ 779, 495, 900. 00 millions and N59,163,029,949.46 billions stacked in foreign accounts by looters during his tenure at the federal ministry of justice.
Malami disclosed this when he was handing over to the Solicitor General and Permanent Secretary, Mr. Dayo Apata at a colourful ceremony organized in his honour by the staff and management of the ministry.
Malami stated that the Asset Recovery and Management Unit, was established during his tenure in order to coordinate relevant stakeholders to put in place policies and mechanisms for effective and efficient assets recovery and management in the country.
According to him, “The AGF was granted mandate pursuant to directive of Council, via approval in EC (2017) 232 on 1st November, 2017 to sign on behalf of the federal government, a Tripartite Agreement with the Swiss Federal Council and World Bank for the repatriation of $321m Abacha loot.
“During the maiden Global Forum on Asset Recovery in Washington DC, USA in December 2017, the AGF signed the said agreement. The funds have since been received by the government and currently deposited with the Central Bank of Nigeria.”
He stated further: “The commercial bank in the UK recently ordered a pay out of the sum of over $73m, with interest to the Nigerian government being part of the proceeds from sale of OPL 245 by Malabu Oil and Gas Company to ENI/SHELL. The said sum has also been received and deposited with the Central Bank.
“The office of the Attorney General of the Federation has recovered the sums of N59, 163, 029, 949. 46 and $385, 495, 900.00 locally.
“The total sums recovered by the Ministry during the reporting period are $ 779,495,900.00 andN59,163,029,949.46.” he stated.
Earlier, the out-gone Minister inaugurated the Board of Governing Councils of five parastatals except board of Human Rights Commission which was put on hold because it was yet to receive the approval of the Senate.
Those inaugurated were: Nigerian Institute of Advance Legal Studies, Council of Legal Education, Nigerian Copy Rights Commission, National Agency for Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons and other Related Matters and Legal Aid Council.
While giving his stewardship account, he said, “The task trusted on whoever is the Attorney General of a nation so diversified and complex like ours could be daunting and extremely enormous.
“At the risk of sounding immodest, to be the Chief Law Officer of Nigeria, with responsibility for the maintenance of the Constitution and all Laws made by the National Assembly is no mean feat.
Continued, he added, “ In summary, may I humbly state that under my watch, some of the major contributions and achievements of the Federal Ministry of Justice to the Federal Republic of Nigeria include Drafting of Presidential Executive Order Nos. 6 and 8 on the Preservation of Assets Connected with Corruption and Voluntary Offshore Assets Regularization Scheme (VOARS) respectively.
Others according to him are establishment of a Virtual Automated Case Management System by the Federal Government of Nigeria to integrate Prosecution Data with the existing Prison; design of Broad Policy Frameworkinter alia for improving the Judicial Process and Access to Justice, facilitating International and National Cooperation in the Recovery of Stolen Assets; effective implementation of preventive anti-corruption policies such as the Treasury Single Account (TSA), the Bank Verification Number (BVN) among others.
Malami thereafter urged members of the board to be passionate and resilient with their work in order to move the parastatals forward, advising such can be achieved by ensuring compliance with their various parastatals’ establishment acts.
