Malami’s billions traced to Abacha loot, Paris Club refunds, CBN agric loans

Malami index

Investigators have linked a bulk of the wealth of Abubakar Malami, the former attorney-general of the federation, to a number of sources, TheCable can report.

At the top of the list are Paris Club refunds made to states, unpaid loans taken from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) under the anchor borrowers programme, and the restitution of Abacha loot to Nigeria.

Malami has been detained by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) ahead of his arraignment before a federal high court in Abuja. Properties estimated at over N200 billion have been traced to Malami. The assets are believed to have been acquired when he was attorney-general under former President Muhammadu Buhari from 2015 to 2023.

He has denied all allegations in statements by his media team, alleging political persecution and promising to defend himself in court.

PARIS CLUB REFUNDS

On the legal advice of Malami, the federal government had decided to deduct $418 million from state allocations as payment to consultants over the Paris Club refund.

Nigeria had exited the Paris Club of creditors in 2005 after paying $12 billion in exchange for a write-off of $18 billion of its $30 billion debts accumulated from the early 1980s. However, the federal government, under former President Obasanjo, paid the $12 billion from the federation purse regardless of how much was owed by the federal, state and local governments to the creditors.

After the states protested, it was decided that they should be refunded since most of the debts were taken by the federal government — with most states not owing foreign creditors.

Consultants were engaged by the federal government to calculate how much was to be refunded to the states, and they charged a commission in excess of $400 million.