Malami: No personal benefit from $2.15bn debt recovery commission

Abubakar Malami, minister of justice and attorney-general of the federation (AGF), has once again spoken on the debt recovery contract he awarded to Trobell International Limited.

TheCable had reported how President Muhammadu Buhari terminated the contract over the “incredible” commission which amounted to $2.15 billion — or N774 billion — at the initial estimate of $43 billion.

Buhari was said to have been alarmed by the five percent commission recommended for Trobell which was to help secure unpaid arrears to Nigeria from the oil production sharing contracts (PSCs) with multinational companies.

In his initial response to the report, the minister had defended the five percent commission, describing it as an innovation compared to the “30 percent” paid under ex-President Goodluck Jonathan.

“The 5% as a recovery fee is a product of innovation introduced by the Federal Government upon the assumption of office of President Muhammadu Buhari as against 30% and above which was the traditional fee by the previous administration,” he had said in a statement.

But in another statement Umar Gwandu, his spokesman, issued on his behalf on Thursday, Malami said his engagement in the recovery is because of his patriotism to the country.

“The effort was neither propelled by any ulterior motive nor about gratification of any personal desire through any percentage to be given to the recovery agent, but of an unflinching patriotic commitment to get back to the country the revenue it deserves,” the statement read.

“It has never been the tradition of the Attorney-General of the Federation to demand much-less of accepting a Kobo on matters relating to such engagements and conduct of his official duties.

“Multiple  agents were overtime engaged in that respect without pecuniary consideration.”

The minister said it was Trobell which first brought the recovery idea and payment of the professional fee is “exclusive function” of the ministry of finance, budget, and national planning.

“It is a function exclusively vested in Federal Ministry of Finance which has the right to vet, confirm and interrogate issues before any payment is made,” the statement read.

“And payments are made upon recovery directly to the recovery agent and not to the Office of Attorney-General.

“The Attorney-General of the Federation is determined to protect his integrity against individuals and corporate personalities bent on tarnishing his reputation in the conduct of government affairs.”

The AGF, however, failed to comment on the termination of the contract by the president.

The contract Malami awarded to Trobell echoes the dubious commission payments to Nigerian lawyers for the return of $321 million Abacha Loot from Switzerland — even though a Swiss attorney, Enrico Monfrini, did all the recovery over a period of seven years.

Malami was only expected to formally send a request to the Swiss government for the final return of the money to the country. He, instead, engaged another set of lawyers to write the letter and paid them $17 million (as against the reported $15 million).

Cable Foundation, partners to TheCable, had sent a freedom of information (FoI) request to Malami over the Switzerland case which he refused to respond to and the court case filed by the foundation was thrown out by the judge.

A similar request sent by TheCable to Malami in 2018 requesting full information on the engagement of  Trobell  for the recovery of the $43 billion PSC backlog from the oil companies went unreplied.