By our reporter| The Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Abubakar Malami (SAN), has defended his labelling of the just-repatriated $311m previously looted by the late Head of State, General Sani Abacha, as ‘Abacha assets following criticism that trailed his choice of words.’
In a statement on Wednesday througgh his spokesman, Dr Umar Gwandu, Malami said he deliberately referred to the funds as ‘Abacha assets’ because it had been repatriated to Nigeria and qualified as Federal Government’s assets.
The AGF urged Nigerians to pay more attention on how the Abacha loot is being utilised other than focusing on rhetorics.
Malami said, “The office (of the AGF) maintained that the choice of words was deliberate.
“It is to be noted that by way of antecedence that Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, SAN has been consistently describing the recovered funds as ‘Abacha loot’ at several fora during the process of recovery of the looted funds, particularly before the eventual repatriation of the funds.”
“The point needs to be made that when the seal of legitimacy was appended to the funds by way of repatriation, it became an asset in favour of the Federal Government as a beneficial owner of same.”
“Beyond the issues of verbal dexterity and vocal acrobatics, Nigerians should focus more on effective utilisation of the recovered looted funds in accordance with the content of the signed tripartite agreement in the interest of the Nigerian public.
“It may interest the general public to note that there is a unit called Assets Recovery and Management Unit at the Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice.
“The use of the word ‘assets’ in relation to the post-recovery of looted assets is to qualify same as Federal Government assets.”
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