Nigeria’s former Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami (SAN), has once again been detained by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), only a few days after his initial grilling by investigators.
Multiple sources told newsmen that Malami was picked up late Monday night and has been battling to satisfy the EFCC’s strict bail requirements.
One of the key conditions is the presentation of two serving permanent secretaries as sureties—a requirement Malami was reportedly scrambling to meet as of Monday night.
“Malami was arrested again. He spent the night trying to secure two permanent secretaries to sign his bail,” a source close to the investigation disclosed.
This fresh detention follows Malami’s earlier appearance before the EFCC on Friday, November 28, during which he was questioned and granted bail. However, he nearly remained in custody overnight due to the same difficult bail terms.
Malami later posted on X that he had been released, describing the session as “successful” and insisting that the truth would expose what he called fabricated allegations.
The renewed arrest comes amid Malami’s firm rejection of the allegations against him—claims tied to the recovery of the $310 million Sani Abacha loot, which later rose to $322.5 million with interest.
The EFCC alleges that Malami duplicated a recovery process supposedly handled by Swiss lawyer Enrico Monfrini before Malami took office in 2015.
But Malami has pushed back sharply. In a statement signed by his media aide, Mohammed Doka, he described the accusations as “baseless, illogical, and lacking any real substance.”
He further argued that if Monfrini had indeed concluded the recovery long before 2015, the Swiss lawyer would not have applied again in December 2016 to continue the same work. According to Malami, this contradiction invalidates the EFCC’s narrative.
The former minister also claimed he saved Nigeria billions, saying he rejected Monfrini’s alleged demand for 20–40% success fees plus a $5 million upfront payment, opting instead for a local legal firm that charged a transparent 5% success fee.
By his calculation, this decision saved the country between 15% (₦76.8 billion) and 35% ($179.2 million) of the total recovered funds.
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Malami insisted that the ongoing probe into the $322.5 million recovery is misguided and maintains that “there is no reasonable basis” to suspect him of abuse of office or money laundering.
