The Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, SAN, has described as false, the allegation levelled 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).
The AGF in a letter to President Muhammadu Buhari, through the office of the Chief of Staff, Alhaji Abba Kyari, and dated 4th April, 2016 with Reference Number HAGF/SH/2016/Vol.1/20 refuted the allegations.
According to the AGF’ spokesman, Comrade Salihu Othman Isah, the Minister of Justice described as false the claims by Dr. George Uboh 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.
The minister also stated as untrue the insinuations that he made an unholy alliance with the banking sector mafia not to cooperate with PASS, and/or that he promised Access Bank that he would call Dr. Uboh to soft pedal on the bank, Malami has this to say: “I must state that the above allegations are untrue, incorrect, false, a figment of the imagination of the author and a smear campaign by Dr. 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 FGN’s funds stashed/trapped in the listed banks or any bank or company in Nigeria or elsewhere.”
He said, “In demonstration of my firm commitment to the recovery efforts of the FGN, I gave PASS a letter titled: TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN dated 17th February, 2016, introducing PASS to the aforesaid banks/financial institutions.
“The aforesaid Letter of Engagement dated 9th February, 2016 and the subsequent Letter of Introduction dated 17th February, 2016 (“HAGF Letters”) were given to PASS on the firm understanding that PASS had already identified and/or traced specific FGN 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 accounts of the FGN in line with the proposals submitted, presentations made and the terms contained in its letter of 9th February, 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’s 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 herein 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.”
He added that, “It’s only defence for the ultra vires were the fraudulent, baseless, unsubstantiated and illogical inferences that my letter of introduction dated 17th February, 2016 has endlessly expanded/enlarged the scope of its instructions while in actual sense, the said letter was expressly issued ‘pursuant to a February 9, 2016’s letter of engagement’ earlier given to PASS.
“In support of the claims contained in paragraph 9 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 FGN agencies, amongst 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 but not limited to the followings:All Ministers of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, ALL Managing Directors of 25 Money Deposit Banks (MDBs) in Nigeria, Managing Director, FSDH Merchant Bank Limited, Managing Director, CitiBank Nigeria Limited, Managing Director, FBN Holdings Plc, Managing Director, Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON), Immediate Past M.D, AMCON, Chairman, Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Former Chairman, Presidential Amnesty Committee, ALGON and some of its past and serving executives.
