REWIND: In 2018, Kemi Adeosun blocked $17m dubious payment to Malami’s lawyers

In 2018, Kemi Adeosun, then minister of finance, refused to approve the payment of $16.9 million to two lawyers engaged by Abubakar Malami, ex-attorney-general of the federation.

The lawyers were hired for the recovery of loot worth $321 million as perpetrated by Sani Abacha, former military head of state.

In April 2018, TheCable reported that when the ministry of justice made a request for the payment of the legal fees despite the repatriation nearing completion, Adeosun declined approval.

BACKGROUND

In 2016, Malami hired the services of two Nigerian lawyers — Oladipo Okpeseyi and Temitope Isaac Adebayo — for the repatriation of the sum.

Okpeseyi and Adebayo served as lawyers of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), one of the legacy political parties that merged to form the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Malami was once legal adviser to the CPC.

The loot had been recovered and frozen in 2013 under former President Goodluck Jonathan but the repatriation process was stalled in 2015 following a lawsuit filed by the Abachas.

Between 2013 and 2014, the federal government engaged the services of Swiss lawyers, Enrico Monfrini and Christian Luscher, to recover the stolen sum from Liechtenstein and Luxembourg.

Nigeria had paid four percent of the recovered Luxembourg assets as professional fees and expenses to the foreign lawyers, in addition to roughly $6.8 million in fees paid to Monfrini for the Liechtenstein recoveries.

Since all the fees had been paid by Nigeria, it was expected that Malami, who assumed office in November 2015, would sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Swiss authorities and commit to an undertaking that the funds would be properly utilised.

In December 2017, TheCable reported the suspicious engagement of the lawyers.

Following the report, an article apparently sponsored to discredit the platform alleged that Monfrini was asking for an additional 20 percent to “complete the job”.

Malami allegedly made a counter offer of five percent which Monfrini rejected, reportedly prompting Malami to engage the lawyers.

However, Monfrini, in an email sent to TheCable in April 2018, rejected the allegation.

Monfrini also told TheCable in a series of interviews that hiring new lawyers was needless because he had already completed the task.

The $16.9 million fee was later controversially paid to the lawyers.

In September 2018, Adeosun resigned as finance minister following a National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) certificate scandal.