Malami Appears Before Reps Committee Over $2.4bn Oil Probe

The Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN), has said that disclosing the details of the whistle-blowers as requested by the Ad-hoc Committee of the House of Representatives investigating the alleged loss of over $2.4 billion in unremitted oil revenue, violates confidentiality.

Malami stated this Thursday in Abuja when he appeared before the committee.

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

Chairman of the committee, Hon. Mark Gbillah, had last week announced that Malami will face the legislative panel 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, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, approved payments to whistleblowers which were not in accordance with the policy.

With regard to details of accounts into which recoveries were paid, Malami stated that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) maintained the accounts, not the Office of the Attorney General of the Federation.

He argued that his office was not a signatory nor does it manages the accounts.

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