ABUBAKAR MALAMI, AGF’S OFFICE AND MATTERS ARISING

Festus Babajide writes that Malami enjoys the President’s unalloyed confidence

In 2015, when Abubakar Malami SAN, was appointed as Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation, it was practically impossible to foresee that he will spearhead the Buhari-led administration’s drive to recover stolen wealth stashed in local and foreign accounts, record landslide victories in international court cases that have continued to drain the nation’s resources and plummet Nigeria’s ranking as a difficult terrain to do business.

It comes as no surprise that the cronies of the fantastically corrupt persons in and out of the polity are on a revenge mission. These cartels who are alien to being challenged in their business dealings have made it their stock in trade to smear the AGF’s reputation and propagate falsehood as facts aided by a section of the media sympathetic to their phony course.

Nigeria waited for many years to elect an administration that is tough on criminal elements. Understandably, the rot in the system has become a profitable way of life for many; cutting deals at the expense of the larger population, amassing illegal wealth and fleecing the government of its resources was seen as the ideal way to live a life of opulence while many Nigerians survive on less than $1 a day.

In Buhari’s first term in office, the AGF publicly led the frontal assault on criminal minds and intervened to bring closure in litigations that pitched the country against certain individuals. His modus operandi is one devoid of noisemaking, hoopla and the regular media charade without substance.

Malami’s desire to carry on with the anti-corruption crusade of the President Muhammadu Buhari after his reelection in 2019 again, pitched him against the high and mighty. Several attempts were made including forgery of documents to pacify Buhari to relive the Attorney-General of his job. In the figment of their imagination, this arrangement will eliminate their perceived stumbling block and give them unfettered access to continue in their illegality.

Unperturbed by their scheming, Malami continues to enjoy Buhari’s unalloyed confidence. The reality is clear to every discernible mind that the AGF plays a crucial role in the success achieved so far by this administration.

Without Malami’s firmness, Nigerians may never have known about the recently repatriated funds hidden in foreign bank accounts and efforts are currently being intensified to recover more money to the nation’s treasury. Additionally, properties acquired in highbrow areas of Abuja and Lagos with stolen funds were speedily recovered. Money laundering and operation of several accounts with illicit wealth were tackled head-on by the untiring AGF in collaboration with the anti-graft agencies.

Indisputably, the federal government’s Voluntary Offshore Assets Regularization Scheme (VOARS) unveiled by the Attorney-General of the federation in 2019 was a masterstroke in repatriating and channeling looted funds into developmental projects.

Malami’s practicality has set himself at crossroads with businessmen, while he has reiterated at different fora that his priority remains Nigeria and that he will continue to search for opportunities that are in the country’s favour and options that are pragmatic and cost saving.

Unfortunately, this has been Malami’s albatross. The burden and expectation of his office in the face of criticism to do right by all Nigerians at the expense of a selected few. Like many other allegations that have been disproved in the past, the recent invasion of Justice Odili’s home and the linking of the office of the Attorney-General is another desperate propaganda taken too far.

The invasion stands condemned and the urgency of the need to bring the perpetrators to book has unraveled the major actors. The prime suspect in his allegory on one hand claims he consults for the office of the Attorney-General and on the other hand stated explicitly that he was not sent by the AGF. So, who sent him? There are procedures involved in engaging a consultant – and from the investigation conducted thus far, nothing in the form of a written document was presented to substantiate his terms of reference as a consultant.

Besides, it is rib-tickling and laughable that a highly revered office of the minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation with an abundance of professionals at their disposal will engage the services an impersonator and a serial document forger in a consulting capacity.

While the Nigerian Police force have exonerated officials of the office of the Federal Ministry of Justice of any misconduct, it is a welcome development that the AGF has taken special interest in this case by ordering full investigation into the unlawful invasion including the judge that issued the search warrant without due diligence. The perpetrators of this dastardly act must be brought to face the full weight of the law.

Babajide wrote from Lagos