Malami: Past administration looted funds for fight against terrorism -- we've cleared their mess

Malami: Past administration looted funds for fight against terrorism — we’ve cleared their mess

December 27

17:30 2021

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Abubakar Malami, the attorney-general of the federation (AGF), says the present administration has “cleared the mess” of the past government in terms of the fight against terrorism.

Malami said this on Monday while featuring on a programme aired by Radio Kano.

Speaking on the recovery of looted assets, the AGF said Nigerians have seen proof that the money recovered over the years from foreign countries has helped the President Muhammadu Buhari administration fund various projects.

The AGF added that the asset recovery was made possible due to Buhari’s radical approach to the anti-corruption fight, which he said shows no favouritism, irrespective of status.

“The money recovered from looted assets, especially those that were kept abroad, were used judiciously and are all visible to Nigerians,” he said.

“Some of the projects that were carried out from that money include the Kano-Abuja highway, the Lagos-Ibadan expressway, Second Niger Bridge which was abandoned many years ago, and other projects like school feeding programmes, the agricultural input support, N-Power, and many others.

“The fight against corruption has recorded tremendous success also. This administration did not even favour even members of its cabinet whenever found guilty. Many people were convicted on several corruption allegations and nobody intervened to favour or influence the process.

“This has really helped in the recovery of many looted assets and that is what we are using in many of our capital projects.

“It equally helped in the fight against insecurity because that past administration has looted huge amount of money that was meant for the fight against terrorism. But we came and cleared all their mess. So, we did what they were not able to do in one year.

“The time we came, there were over 17 local governments in the north-east that were under control of the Boko Haram terrorists. There were attacks everywhere in the region. But we were able to recover the 17 local governments, restore peace, build houses for IDPs and many more.”