The House has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to suspend the payment of $16.9 million (about N6 billion) or any part thereof to two Nigerian lawyers engaged by Abubakar Malami, current Attorney General of the Federation to recover the Abacha Loot pending investigation on the matter.
Presenting the motion at its plenary session of Thursday 12th April, 2018, Hon. Mark Terseer Gbillah (PDP: Benue) expressed surprise that the Attorney-General of the Federation engaged the services of two Nigerian lawyers named Oladipo Okpeseyi, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), and Temitope Adebayo for a fee of $16.9 Million (about N6 Billion), for the recovery of the Abacha loot. He also accused the Attorney General for engaging their services without following process.
Speaking further, the lawmaker stated that a Swiss Lawyer named Mr Enrico Monfrini, had been long contracted by the Nigerian Government in 1999 to recover the sum of $321 million as part of the Abacha loot. He also stated that Mr Monfrini finished the Luxembourg leg of the job in 2014 when Mohammed Bello Adoke was the Attorney General of the Federation.
In addition, Hon. Gbillah stated that the Federal Government had since paid Mr Mofrini for his legal services rendered for the recovery of the money, which was then domiciled with the Attorney-General of Switzerland. According to him, all that remained pending was the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Nigeria and Switzerland for the money to be repatriated to avoid any issue of accountability around previous recoveries.
Hon. Gbillah also spoke on the antecedents of the two Nigeria lawyers hired by the Attorney-General of the Federation in 2016 for the recovery of the Abacha loot recalling that both had worked for President Muhammadu Buhari’s Congress for Progressive Change (CPC); the predecessor of the now ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) when Malami was the legal adviser of CPC. In addition, he stressed that part of the terms of the agreement reached with Mr. Mofrini for the recovery of the loot was that that no other lawyer would be engaged for the return of the money to Nigeria.
Following this, the House set up an Ad-hoc Committee to investigate the circumstances surrounding the engagement of the Nigerian lawyers, for the recovery of the Abacha loot for a fee of $16.9 million. The said Committee is also expected to examine whether Abubakar Malami followed due process in its report, which is slated for presentation in six weeks.
