Tribune / Nigeria: The Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) and the Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, has opened up on the allegation leveled against him by one George Uboh, over the recovery of some alleged funds stashed away by individuals in different Nigerian banks, as well as some Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).
Malami’s role was contained in a letter he wrote to President Muhammadu Buhari, through the office of the Chief of Staff, Alhaji Abba Kyari, dated April 4, with Reference Number HAGF/SH/2016/Vol.1/20, refuting the spurious allegations.
A statement by the minister’s spokesman, Comrade Salihu Othman Isah, at the weekend, said Malami described Uboh’s claim that he deliberately frustrated him in his effort to recover the over N300 billion his company, Panic Alert Security Systems (PASS) traced to some Nigerian banks, as false.
The minister also said it was untrue, the insinuations that he made an unholy alliance with the banking sector mafia not to cooperate with PASS.
The AGF said: “I must state that the above allegations are untrue, incorrect, false, a figment of the imagination of the author and a smear campaign by Uboh to tarnish my name. I did not make, never made and will never make any alliance with anyone in and outside of the banking industry to frustrate PASS or any firm from recovering any Federal Government’s funds stashed/trapped in the listed banks or any bank or company in Nigeria or elsewhere.
“In demonstration of my firm commitment to the recovery efforts of the Federal Government of Nigeria, I gave PASS a letter entitled: TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN, dated February 17, 2016, introducing PASS to the aforesaid banks / financial institutions.
“The aforesaid letter of engagement, dated February 9, 2016 and the subsequent letter of introduction, dated February 17, 2016 (HAGF Letters) were given to PASS on the firm understanding that PASS had already identified and/or traced specific Federal Government of Nigeria funds stashed/trapped in the aforementioned banks and that PASS would promptly embark on processes that would lead to actual recovery and remittance of the traced funds into the designated account of the Federal Government of Nigeria in line with the proposals submitted, presentations made and the terms contained in its letter of February 9, 2016.”
On why he had to revoke the letter of engagement given to PASS, Malami said he took the action when he discovered that it was on window-shopping mission upon receipt of the letter by going beyond his brief, embarking on subtle threats to all Nigerian banks, some private individuals and entities solely to shop for data and information to execute the brief, contrary to the representations made to the minister.
Malami averred that: “In a manner that clearly demonstrated that PASS was merely on a voyage of information and window-shopping, PASS, upon receipt of the letters here in above mentioned, went to town and unilaterally expanded the scope of its brief far beyond the 13 banks covered by his brief and embarked on subtle threats to all Nigerian banks, some private individuals and entities solely to shop for data and information to execute the brief contrary to the representations made to me.
“In support of the claims contained in paragraph nine above, I was inundated with the excesses of Dr George Uboh of PASS and later found out that PASS actually wrote several banks (more than 13 banks), private individuals, corporate entities (national and multinationals), government agencies and virtually all FGN’s Ministries soliciting for data, information, official records, remittances (funds and stocks) and records of whereabouts of all forfeited assets not yet disposed by some of the Federal Government of Nigeria agencies, among other things.
“For the record, the entities, agencies and private individuals written by PASS, in addition to the 13 banks, specifically / actually covered by its mandate include all ministers of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, all Managing Directors of 25 Money Deposit Banks (MDBs) in Nigeria; Managing Director of Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON); Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS); former Chairman of the Presidential Amnesty Committee, among several others.
Other excesses of Dr Uboh, the minister’s spokesman, were said to include soliciting and / or requesting banks’ officials to allow him access to certain encrypted systems in order to enable him extract relevant information to execute the brief without appreciation of the security implications of such a delicate venture on Nigeria’s financial sector and without any prior discussions with and approval from the AGF.
