Nigeria risks losing N218billion Abacha loot as Justice Minister Malami, US-based attorney, battle

One

of the issues believed to
have been discussed by
President Muhammadu
Buhari and the visiting U.S.
Secretary of State, John
Kerry, during a closed-door
meeting last Tuesday was the
return of millions of dollars
of Nigeria’s money looted by
late military dictator, Sani
Abacha.
However, Nigeria stands the
risk of forfeiting a hefty
N218.3 billion ($550 million)
already recovered from Mr
Abacha’s estate if a suit filed
by an American-based
Nigerian lawyer against the
Nigerian government in a
United States federal court is
not quickly resolved.
Texas-based attorney, Godson
Nnaka, who was contracted
by the Nigerian government
in 2004 to help find and
recover funds siphoned by Mr
Abacha and his associates,
has asked the court to
appoint him a private
attorney general of the fund
as well as award him 40
percent of the recovered
fund. He claimed he made the
request in line with United
States law.
Mr. Nnaka has also accused
the Attorney-General of the
Federation (AGF) and
Minister of Justice, Abubakar
Malami, of demanding
kickback of as much as 70
percent of his fees and acting
in a vindictive manner after
he turned down his demand.
Mr. Malami strongly denied
the allegations.
The Letter of Instruction
In 2004, Mr. Nnaka
approached the Olusegun
Obasanjo administration with
a proposal to help find and
recover millions of dollars
stolen by Mr Abacha. Having
convinced the government
that he could trace and
recover the looted funds, the
Attorney-General of the
Federation at the time,
Akinlolu Olujimi, in a
November 25, 2004 letter,
instructed Mr Nnaka “to
proceed in a professional
manner to recover the funds
on behalf of the country.”
“Government will only pay
for your professional services
a percentage as may be
agreed for any sum actually
recovered,” the letter added.
In a letter to President Muhammadu
Buhari in August 2015, Mr Nnaka said
he carried out the task. He claimed he
hired a group of lawyer, financial
consultants, and academics across the
world to help identify and trace the
funds.
He also said he travelled to France,
England, Switzerland, Angola, Turkey,
and Austria, to meet with government
officials, law enforcement agents and
financial experts with the aim of finding
and securing the funds.
Mr. Nnaka further claimed in that 2014,
after a district court ruling forfeiting the
money to the United States government,
he singlehandedly filed an appeal when
he entered appearance to “protect the
interest of Nigeria” when no one did.
According to him the court would have
awarded the money to the United States
if no one hand entered appearance on
behalf of Nigeria within 35 days.
He said unfortunately all his efforts to
secure the fund for the country were
antagonised by the former Attorney
General of the Federation, Mohammed
Adoke, and his successor Mr Malami.
Mr. Adoke’s cold shoulder
Mr. Nnaka explained that he approached
Mr Adoke and explained the need for
the Nigerian government to act quickly
or stand the risk of forfeiting the funds
to the United States. He said he needed
Mr. Adoke to sign a mandatory
verification required by law for him to
perfect the claim filed in court to secure
the recovered loot.
But on May 26, 2014, Mr Adoke wrote
the United States Department of Justice
(DOJ), saying the Nigerian government
did not authorise Mr Nnaka and three
other persons to represent it in the asset
forfeiture case.
Mr. Nnaka said Mr. Adoke wrote the DOJ
despite receiving a letter from Mr.
Olujimi on May 15, 2014 confirming that
he was indeed hired by the Nigerian
government to help find and recover the
loot.
Subsequent to the refusal of Mr. Adoke
to sign the mandatory verification and
his letter to the DOJ, the court ruled that
the fund should be forfeited to the
United States government.
Mr. Nnaka said he immediately filed an
appeal to preserve the interest of Nigeria
in the case and to stop the money from
being forfeited to the US government.
Mr. Nnaka alleged that Mr. Adoke, and
later Mr Malami, wanted him out of the
case because he refused to accede to
their fraudulent demands. He claimed
they planned to enrich themselves from
the recovered fund.
“Mr Adoke intended to corruptly chase
plaintiff away from the recovery of the
looted funds so that Mr. Adoke would
recover and re-loot the funds for himself
by himself or through proxies and for his
self-enrichment and/or for his associates
in crime,” he wrote in a petition to a
federal court in the U.S.
“Malami asked me for 70 percent of my fee”
In April, frustrated for being repeatedly
stonewalled by the Nigerian government,
the US-based attorney through his
lawyer, Benneth Amadi, filed a civil suit
against the Nigerian government and Mr
Malami at a US district court in
Washington DC.
In the complaint and petition
accompanying the suit, he requested to
be appointed a private attorney general
of the recovered funds. Mr Nnaka also
claimed that Mr, Malami, just like Mr
Adoke before him, is “convincingly”
working with the Abacha family with the
intention of criminally diverting the
funds for his enrichment and those of
his unnamed associates.
He said after the 2015 presidential
election, he approached Mr. Malami
through his representatives with relevant
documents and personally appealed to
him to undo the wrong perpetrated
against him by his predecessor.
He claimed that Mr Malami initially
appeared to be working in the interest
of the country and seemed genuinely
interested in the repatriation of the
funds. He said the AGF promised to sign
the necessary papers setting aside the
letter written by Mr. Adoke as well as
promising to sign the mandatory
verification letter that would reinstate
him as the government’s attorney.
He said trouble started when Mr Malami
started making “shocking” demands.
“Mr Malami started making shocking
proposals and demands before he would
sign the documents. Mr Malami
proposed that the plaintiff should agree
to part with and to pay a significant
portion of his fees in the aforesaid
matter to him as a condition for Malami
to sign and deliver the necessary
documents for the verification and the
reactivation of the mandate letters to the
plaintiff,” the petition read.
The petitioner further stated that he
would prove in court that Mr Malami,
who he claimed was a former lawyer to
the Abacha family, was working in
cohort with the Abachas, Abubakar
Bagudu, who was Mr Abacha’s bagman,
to divert the fund for himself.
Mr Bagudu is a governor of the Nigeria’s
North-West state of Kebbi.
In a telephone interview with PREMIUM
TIMES, Benneth Amadi, Mr Nnaka’s
lawyer, said after it became clear to Mr
Malami that his client was not ready to
share his fees with him, he started acting
in a “vindictive manner.”
“Mr Malami indeed asked my client for
70 percent of his fees. We would prove it
in court. Of course I don’t expect him to
admit to you that he did but we have
evidence to prove it in court,” he said.
After the breakdown of the discussion
between Messrs Nnaka and Malami, the
AGF then appointed another attorney to
represent Nigeria in the case.
Documents seen by PREMIUM TIMES
shows that in May, a Los Angeles based
lawyer, Anthony Egbase, notified the U.S.
District Court that the Nigerian
government had authorised him to
appear in court as its attorney in the
case.
Mr. Amadi said by the appointment of
Mr Egbase, Mr. Malami may have gotten
what he was not able to get from his
client, Mr Nnaka. He claimed the new
attorney was yet to file anything in
relation to the case since he was
appointed by Mr. Malami.
On why his client was asking for a fee as
steep as 40 percent of the recovered
fund, Mr Amadi said it was the standard
practice in the United States. He however
added that Mr. Nnaka was ready to
negotiate for a lower fee if the federal
government was ready to play ball.
“Here in the US there is what is called
the contingency fee arrangement that an
attorney and his client may enter into.
That was the agreement he entered into
with Nigeria at the time and the
contingency fee is is normally 40
percent though they may negotiate and
reach an agreement which may be less
than the 40 percent.
“When you are negotiating someone
does not negotiate against themselves.
Here you are required to make your
offer but how much has Nigeria offered?
They have offered zero as if the whole
thing is a joke.”
When contacted, Mr Malami said Mr
Nnaka was “incompetent” and a
“fraudster” who couldn’t recover a kobo
of the stolen wealth for 14 years. He said
Mr Nnaka was not licensed to practice
law in the United States like he claimed.
“If he claimed he has recovered the
money let him show you where the
money is? Which federal government
account was it designated to. As far as I
am concerned I know he is not licenced
as a lawyer to practice in the US. So
there was a problem of
misrepresentation on his part when he
approached me. He didn’t disclose that,”
Mr Malami said in a telephone interview
with PREMIUM TIMES.
“He claimed to have been retained by
AGF Olujimi over 14 years ago and as of
this moment he has not succeeded in
recovering a kobo for the federal
government. For 14 years because he
doesn’t have the competence and
capacity to make any recovery he could
not recover a kobo.”
He said that the letter of instruction
given to Mr. Nnaka by Mr Olujimi
required him to give the government
feedback on his progress after which he
would be given further directives on
how to proceed but Mr Nnaka failed to
do so because he had nothing to report.
“And in fact, even the letter of
instruction he claimed to have as
claimed to have emanated from Olujimi,
it was provisional letter given to him to
go and trace the fund and report back to
the office of the Attorney general for
proper instruction.
“Because of his incompetence he could
not trace any fund much more come
back with a formal letter. So if truly he
has been engaged by the office of the
attorney general and he has recovered
the funds why is he now seeking further
instruction.”
He added that Mr Nnaka threatened to
embarrass President Buhari during one
of his official visits to the United States.
Mr Malami said that was the point he
decided to cut further discussions with
the US-based attorney.
“So when I was appointed into office he
approached me for such instruction. But
then what annoyed me most was that he
now used threat. He threatened me that
if I do not give him the letter of
instruction, when Mr President’s flight
arrives in New York, he would
embarrass the federal government. I
then became annoyed because I do not
naturally stand to threat. Nobody can
intimidate me like a baby for procuring
a letter of instruction. And on that basis
I said he should do his worst. That was
the genesis of the problem.”
Interestingly, just like Mr. Naka accused
him of working with the Abachas to
divert the fund, Mr. Malami too accused
him of working for those who does not
want the funds repatriated to Nigeria.
“My logical conclusion arising from the
way he behaved in court by filing series
of applications so as to stop and
frustrate that repatriation of the money
to Nigeria is that he was not working for
national interest,” the justice minister
said.
“Perhaps he was working with the
people from whom Nigeria is trying to
recover the looted money from. Because
no lawyer can pursue a case for 14 years
without making any meaning progress.
The position of things now is he is a
clear criminal. He is clearly
incompetent. We are not negotiating
anything with him at all if he has a case
let him go to court,” he said.
Mr Amadi, however, said Mr Malami was
like a drowning man who is clutching to
a straw. He said it was not true that Mr
Nnaka was not licensed to practice law
in the United States.
“He is just talking nonsense,” Mr. Amadi
said. “He is like a sinking man trying to
gather some straw, which would not help
him at all. The money has been frozen in
different banks in different countries.
The only thing stopping the money from
being repatriated is this lawsuit. If the
Nigeria government agree to reach a
settlement with Mr Nnaka, the court will
order that the funds should be unblocked
and returned to Nigeria,” he said.
“The retainer he got was go and look for
the money. Take the necessary step to
get where the monies are. If you see
them, recovere them. To recover the
money, you don’t go into a bank and
start collecting the money. Necessary
steps have to be taken as they are being
taken now.”
On Mr Malami’s claim that Mr. Nnaka is
not licensed to practice law in the United
States, Mr Amadi said the AGF was
merely peddling falsehood. He said Mr.
Nnaka’s licence to practice in the state of
Maryland was revoked, but that he still
has a licence to practise in Washington
DC.
“In US you have different states giving
lawyers licences to practice. It is not like
in Nigeria where a body of benchers
give licenses to lawyers to practice
throughout Nigeria. Here each state gives
licenses to lawyers to practice in that
state and if one needs to practice in
another state you will have to get license
from the state. Nnaka has license to
practice in some state. He has license
practice in Maryland. But there was a
time he had some problem.
“He gave his cases for some lawyers to
handle his cases for him so the lawyers
he gave the cases to could not meet up
with one case and then the matter was
reported and they wrote letters, then he
was not around because he was looking
for this money and working on this
Nigerian case before he could come back
they had taken decision and withdrawn
his license in Maryland. Only Maryland.
But he has a license to practice in
Washington DC. He has an office.
“At the time he was given the retainer to
look for these funds, he was fully in
licence. His license was not touched.
None of them. Even if he does not have
license he retained lawyers to do the
work, he hired investigators to be
looking for where this money was. So
what the attorney general said doesn’t
make sense at all,” he said.