Former Nigerian Attorney General Malami is Accused of Blocking Recovery of ₦70 Trillion

New information has surfaced accusing Abubakar Malami, the former Attorney General of Nigeria, of stopping efforts to get back a huge amount of money stolen from the country.

Reports obtained by SaharaReporters and confirmed by sources in Nigeria’s Ministry of Justice claim that around ₦70 trillion, that’s a lot of money—was illegally taken from the country’s treasury.

Here’s what happened with Malami:

Some people, including whistleblowers and private investigators, found out about this stolen money and started trying to get it back.

They followed the rules set out by the government in 2016 for whistleblowers. But when they were making progress, Malami stepped in and messed things up, according to these reports.

“The asset recovery unit was initially involved, with internal investigators assessing the claims of the whistleblowers to be concrete before the attorney general decided to personally oversee the recovery,” one of the officials said under condition of anonymity to avoid potential backlash.

“It was one of the biggest asset recovery cases we handled,” another senior official of the ministry said.

Even when the courts ordered that the bank accounts with the stolen money be frozen, Malami allegedly didn’t make sure this happened.

He also didn’t help the investigators or make sure the banks followed the court’s orders.

Now, even though Malami is no longer in charge, the situation hasn’t gotten better.

The stolen money is still being moved around, and some accounts where the money was kept have been closed. The government is investigating Malami for his part in all of this.

“The whistleblowers were left out in the cold with no government or institutional support. It was as though Malami wanted the official recovery to fail and it did,” an associate from his office said

Malami says he didn’t do anything wrong and that his office supported the whistleblowers. But the evidence suggests otherwise.

This situation adds to the other problems Nigeria has had with money disappearing while important government officials are in charge.

It raises big questions about honesty and fairness in Nigeria’s government.