The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has rejected claims that it is unfairly targeting former Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, SAN, insisting that the investigation against him started well before the current EFCC chairman, Ola Olukoyede, assumed office.
Speaking on a televised channel on Sunday, Olukoyede said the probe was neither personal nor politically motivated, emphasizing that he inherited the ongoing case file when he became chairman.
“I’m yet to see the facts he wants to bring out to buttress that claim, if he actually said that. We carry out our investigation in the most professional way,” Olukoyede said.
“There is nothing personal in this matter. If Nigeria is to move forward, all of us must agree that this fight must be fought without being partisan. The investigation of this man predated me in the office. I inherited the investigation file.”
According to the EFCC boss, the case had been under investigation for nearly two and a half years, with charges considered only after investigators were satisfied that the evidence was solid.
“For the past two years that I’ve been in the office, we’ve been painstakingly carrying out the investigation, trying to establish some of these offences. Not until I was convinced that we had a watertight case. So there is nothing personal about it,” Olukoyede added.
He also addressed Malami’s suggestion that the EFCC chairman was acting out of vendetta due to a panel led by Justice Ayo Salami that allegedly indicted him. Olukoyede dismissed the claim, saying the onus was on Malami to make the report public.
“Those who claim I was fraudulently or criminally indicted by the panel, the onus is on them to publish the report for people to see,” he said, adding that the panel was set up in 2020 and concluded in early 2021, while Malami remained in office until 2023.
“Why was the report not published for two years while he was in office? Why is it now, after an investigation was opened and charges were about to be filed, that he is claiming persecution?” Olukoyede questioned.
He clarified that he had never seen the panel’s report and could not comment on its contents, noting that he appeared before the panel as part of a fact-finding exercise, not as a subject of investigation.
“Nigerians knew that it was the former acting chairman who was the subject of that investigation. I attended the sitting of the panel on two occasions, explained the statutory mandate of the commission, and was told I would be contacted if needed. That was the last I knew about the panel,” Olukoyede said.
The EFCC chairman further stated that investigators later invited him to make statements as part of ongoing inquiries, adding that he was cleared by the EFCC and had received a letter of clearance from the presidency.
The development comes after a Federal High Court in Abuja ordered the interim forfeiture of 57 properties allegedly linked to Malami and his two sons, Abdulaziz and Abiru-Rahman Malami, to the Federal Government. Justice Emeka Nwite granted the order following an ex parte application filed by the EFCC through its counsel, Ekele Iheanacho (SAN).
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