Malami Appears Before Reps Committee Over $2.4bn Oil Probe

The Attorney General of the Federation, Mr Abubakar Malami, on Thursday appeared before the House of Reps ad-hoc committee investigating the alleged loss of over $2.4 billion unremitted oil revenue.

The revenue is from the illegal sale of 48 million barrels of crude oil export from 2014 till date.

Last Thursday, the Chairman of the Committee, Mark Gbillah announced that Malami will face the lawmakers on April 27.

He said the committee obtained reports that Malami received funds from outside the country through the whistle-blower policy but did not remit it to the federation account.

The lawmaker also said the minister of finance approved payments to whistleblowers which were not in accordance with the policy.

But appearing before the lawmakers, the Minister of Justice said that disclosing the details of the whistle-blowers as requested by the committee violates confidentiality.

He stated that the details of whistle-blowers as requested by the committee cannot be disclosed at a public hearing because it breaches confidentiality and indeed the whistle-blower policy.

With regard to details of accounts into which recoveries were paid, Malami stated thatthe Central Bank of Nigeria maintained these accounts, not the Office of the Attorney General of the Federation. Malami argued that his office is not a signatory, nor does it manage the accounts.

According to him, over $650 million have so far been recovered from different sources including late Head of State, General Sani Abacha, former Bayelsa State Governor, Diepreye Alamiesiegha and former Delta State Governor, James Ibori