How Has He Fared?

As minister for justice, Malami has taken some bold decisions. One of such decisions is the withdrawal of the case of forgery against the Senate President, Dr. Abubakar Saraki and his deputy, Ike Ekweremadu. Malami discontinued the trial after he was told by the lawyers he hired to prosecute the case that the investigative report and evidence could not support the charge.

In yet another case, while the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission ( EFCC) was pushing for his predecessor, Mohammed Adoke, also a SAN to be prosecuted for complicity in the controversial settlement of the Malabu oil deal, Malami wrote to the court stating that he was not sure Adoke has a case to answer, because he was merely carrying out presidential directive.

In a letter to the Acting Chairman of the EFCC, Ibrahim Magu, Malami wrote: “Having fully examined the entire case file, I am inclined to request you to consider the charge in relation to the composition of the parties, the offences, the proof of evidence and the case summary in view of the fact that nothing in the proof of evidence appears to have directly linked parties to the offences as charged.”

During the administration of Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, the Governing Council of the National Human Rights Commission ordered the federal government to pay N135 million to people, who sustained injuries when the security agencies invaded an uncompleted building in Apo district of Abuja. Adoke did not comply with the order. But Malami ensured the victims were paid immediately he became justice minister.

Last year, he urged judges to disregard letters from the Chairman of the Special Investigation Panel on the Recovery of Public Property, Chief Okoi Obono-Obla, asking them to declare their assets. The panel was obviously exercising powers it did not possess. The AGF had to call the panel to order.

After submitting his ministerial scorecard to the Presidency last week, the minister said: “Fundamentally arising from the cases that were conducted by Federal Ministry of Justice, the ministry succeeded in saving the government around N4.5 trillion relating to claims presented in respect to these cases, which were conducted and concluded.”

THISDAY has not been able to independently verify that claim.

Malami has also made efforts in tackling the seemingly intractable crisis of congestion in the nation’s prisons. Through his efforts, many prisoners have regained their freedom.

The minister also gave opportunity to those arrested and detained in connection with the Boko Haram insurgency in the northeast to have their days in court. Many have been in jail for over six years without trial. A special arrangement was made with the judiciary, which led to the arraignment of these suspects before a federal high court in Niger State. This has led to a reduction in the number of suspects detained in barracks in the northeast.

To his credit, Malami worked to fast track the release of $322 million kept in foreign banks by the late military ruler, Sani Abacha and his family. The $322 million that was repatriated in December 2017, was money that was frozen by the Swiss Attorney-General and was not domicile in Switzerland, but in other countries, mainly Luxembourg.

The money was disbursed through Conditional Cash Transfers (CCT) to 302,000 poor households across the country.