…Judge says former minister failed to justify source of assets
…EFCC alleges properties worth over N212bn acquired with proceeds of crime
A Federal High Court in Abuja on Wednesday ordered the final forfeiture of 48 properties linked to the immediate past Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, to the Federal Government over alleged proceeds of crime.
Justice Joyce Abdulmalik, who delivered the judgment, held that Malami failed to satisfactorily rebut the reasonable suspicion raised by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission that the assets were acquired through unlawful means.
The court ruled that the properties should be permanently forfeited to the Federal Government under the provisions of Section 17 of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Fraud Related Offences Act.
Malami served as Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice between November 11, 2015 and May 29, 2023, under the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari.
The judgment followed a final forfeiture application filed by the EFCC after the anti-graft agency had earlier secured an interim forfeiture order over the assets, which it valued at more than N212bn.
The commission had sought the forfeiture of 57 properties allegedly traced to the former minister across Abuja, Kebbi, Kano and Kaduna states.
However, Justice Abdulmalik held that the EFCC successfully established ownership and suspicious acquisition of only 48 properties, while credible evidence showed that nine of the listed assets belonged to other persons.
Rejecting arguments by Malami that some of the properties belonged to members of his extended family in Kebbi State, the court maintained that the critical issue before it was not ownership but whether the funds used to acquire the assets were legitimate.
“The issue before the court is not who owns the property, but how legitimate were the funds used to acquire them,” the judge held.
The court further ruled that Malami failed to provide a convincing explanation on the lawful sources of funds used in acquiring the assets.
The EFCC had argued that the former justice minister amassed the properties with proceeds of crime and sought their permanent forfeiture to the Federal Government.
The commission also alleged that Malami attempted to conceal illicit wealth through the acquisition of luxury properties in different parts of the country.
Among the forfeited assets are luxury residences in Maitama, Asokoro, Wuse II and Gwarimpa in Abuja; hotels in Maitama and Jabi; commercial buildings in Kano and Kebbi; warehouses, shopping complexes and hundreds of hectares of land.
Other affected properties include residential apartments, plazas, bungalows, warehouses and landed properties allegedly acquired between 2016 and 2024.
Malami had opposed the forfeiture application, insisting that the properties were lawfully acquired and duly declared in his asset declaration forms submitted to the Code of Conduct Bureau in 2019 and 2023.
He accused the EFCC of suppressing material facts and inflating the value of the properties to mislead the court into granting the interim forfeiture order.
His legal team argued that the anti-graft agency relied on mere suspicion rather than credible evidence and urged the court to set aside the interim forfeiture order.
