In the matter of AGF Abubakar Malami Vs George Uboh
It’s unusual, unheard of, an Attorney General and Minister of Justice from, Kebbi, North Western Nigeria. No. The last three Nigerians that stayed long in the job – Messrs Bayo Ojo, Michael Kaase Aondoaaka and Mohammed Bello Adoke – all hail from North Central Nigeria. For the establishment mind-set, the appointment of Abubakar Chika Malami […]
It’s unusual, unheard of, an Attorney General and Minister of Justice from, Kebbi, North Western Nigeria. No. The last three Nigerians that stayed long in the job – Messrs Bayo Ojo, Michael Kaase Aondoaaka and Mohammed Bello Adoke – all hail from North Central Nigeria.
For the establishment mind-set, the appointment of Abubakar Chika Malami as Attorney General and Minister of Justice is an affront. Born only in April, 1967; Malami only graduated from the Usmanu Danfodio University in 1991 and was called to the Bar the following year! On the other hand, their preferred choices for the office had developed grey hair at the Bar while he was in kindergarten. Why should Malami be chosen as Attorney General ahead of them? Come to think of it, the only minister mentioned by the constitution is held by the youngest of President Muhammadu Buhari’s Young Turks.
Whether on Kogi, on the MTN Nigeria fine saga or on the anti-corruption turf, Malami has demonstrated a tough, uncompromising mien and independence of action that leaves no quarter for them and so they desperately seek to drive a wage between Malami and this President.
In the matter of Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami and George Uboh, the journey was predictably short. On the strength of his claim that he had “identified or traced specific Federal Government of Nigeria’s funds stashed in 13 Nigerian banks” amounting to three hundred billion Naira (N300b), the self-proclaimed anti-corruption crusader and chief executive of Panic Alert Security System (PASS), George Uboh, had received a letter dated 9th February, 2016 from the Minister of Justice to go ahead and effect recovery.
Similarly, on 17th February, 2016, Uboh had sought and obtained from the minister another letter titled “to whom it may concern” addressed to the 13 banks urging them to cooperate with Uboh. After receiving this letter, Uboh went to town and expanded the scope of his assignment by including individuals, companies (including multinationals) and ministerial departments and agencies. By the time the count was taken, it was discovered that Uboh’s magnified mission to recover public funds had led him to write to 35 entities using letterhead complete with the Nigerian coat of arms! Now in a world of his own, and totally loose, Uboh began to request bank officials to allow him “access to certain encrypted systems in order to enable him extract relevant information to execute the brief without appreciation of the security implications of such delicate venture on Nigeria’s financial sector and without any prior discussions with and approval” from the minister.
Notwithstanding his highly flowery presentations and exaggerated sense of intelligence on the whereabouts of the FGN funds, George Uboh has failed to recover and remit a single Kobo to the government up to the present. Along the line too, minister Malami discovered that this anti-corruption crusader is actually an ex-convict. George Uboh has been variously described by Thisday (26th April, 2016 edition) as “serial fraudster”, “certified fraudster” on account of his conviction in Georgia, United States of America for “credit card and bank fraud.” He was released from prison in January, 2001. To make matters worse for him, Justice Samuel S E Aladetoyinbo of the FCT High Court on 25th April, 2016, convicted and sentenced Uboh to three years imprisonment (with an option of N4m fine) for selling two units of Toyota Hilux belonging to his former employers, the Police Equipment Foundation. Although Uboh had claimed that his former boss, Kenny Martins, gave him the vehicles to settle debts owed him, he couldn’t show proof of transfer of ownership.
Uboh has now teamed up with those who want to disparage the person of the AGF by claiming that Access Bank had met and obtained assurances from the minister that he would ensure a soft landing for the bank. Is it not lousy to say that you side-stepped the person who gave you a contract and then attempted to send a message to him through his Personal Assistant, as Uboh claimed regarding his alleged refusal to speak to the minister to avoid being prevailed upon to soft pedal on Access Bank? What of the other banks that the minister didn’t pressurise you to soft pedal on, how much did you recover from those?
And soon after his mandate was abrogated, Uboh sent in backdated “preliminary” reports quoting big figures in both local and foreign currencies as monies he had or was about to recover. Uboh also claimed that he had or was working under the minister at the Ministry of Justice; this too, Malami has debunked.
Uboh is a self-seeking, controversial and serial liar moving from one forum to another with spurious claims of larger-than-life abilities to recover stolen assets. Not long ago, he convinced the Governor of Bayelsa to contract him to recover from EFCC custody money stolen by DSP Alamieyeseigha. A few weeks back, he was also at the Senate where he alleged that EFCC,under Ibrahim Lamorde, had hidden assets worth N1.9 trillion from the government.
The antecedents of these two Nigerians speak to their character: one, Abubakar Chika Malami, is reliable; he is a dyed in the wool member of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and loyalist of Muhammadu Buhari with no history of lying, crime or conviction; the other, George Uboh, is totally discredited common criminal out to smear other people so they begin to look like him.
The George Uboh matter may be an unpleasant lesson for the young AGF but it is up to Nigerians, whether in the Presidency or inside prison, to scrutinise the anti-corruption credentials of these two and choose who to believe in the assets recovery saga.