By Abiola Olawale
An aide to former Attorney General and minister of Justice, Okoi Obono-Obla has come up with damning allegations against his former boss, Mr Abubakar Malami, SAN.
Obono-Obla who was also former Chairman of a Special Presidential Investigation unit on the Recovery of Public Property (SPIP) in the office of the Attorney General and Minister of Justice during the immediate past administration alleged that a substantial amount of recovered assets during the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari were purportedly returned to the individuals originally responsible for the misappropriation.
Obono-Obla also alleged that the administration of Buhari failed to recover an estimated $69 billion allegedly linked to stolen crude oil proceeds in a Texas-based bank account.
Obono-Obla who made this known on Saturday during an interview with Seun Okinbaloye on Mic On Podcast, accused the immediate-past Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), Abubakar Malami of frustrating his efforts to bring some individuals who were allegedly involved in looting of public funds to justice.
He said: “Some of the things I recovered were returned to the looters. There was this case of someone from whom I recovered over 80 brand new X-class Mercedes Benz cars (armoured plated) from Jabi, Abuja.
“I wrote to the DG, Customs and the Federal Inland Revenue Services to ask if the person paid customs duties and tax on the vehicles; they said No.
“We get an order of interim forfeiture from the court pending the hearing of the case. So, I sent a memo to Malami to brief him on what we were doing, only for him to tell me that he never mandated me to do things I investigated.”
Speaking further, Obono-Obla also revealed how his boss, Malami allegedly failed to act on a letter purportedly received from an American law firm detailing a certain $69 billion reportedly stolen from oil sales.
He continued: “I informed the president, expecting action to recover such colossal sums, but to date, nothing has been done.
“I wrote to the Attorney General (Abubakar Malami, SAN) seeking support, only to be met with sarcasm. When I mentioned recovering $69 billion, his response was dismissive.”
The New Diplomat reports that PIP was a unit set up by Malami in 2017 to assist in investigating and recovering embezzled public funds.
In August 2019, Okoi Obono-Obla, who was an aide to Malami and head of Nigeria’s SPIP unit was suspended by Buhari over allegations of falsification of records and financial impropriety.
The suspension, conveyed through a letter from the then-Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha, directed that Obono-Obla be immediately removed from office pending investigations by the ICPC.
