Reps accuse Malami, Ahmed of frustrating $2.4bn oil revenue probe

Zainab Ahmed and Abubakar Malami

Reps accuse Malami, Ahmed of frustrating $2.4bn oil revenue probe

The House of Representatives has summoned Abubakar Malami, Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, and Zainab Ahmed, Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, over alleged loss of over $2.4bn revenue from illegal sale of 48 million barrels of crude oil.

The two ministers are accused of frustrating the House ad hoc committee investigating the case.

The committee demanded the appearance of Malami to give evidence on allegations that he approved the payment of $200 million to two private firms as consultancy services fees on whistleblower recoveries.

They are invited to provide necessary documents and information that would help the House in its assignment.

Chairman of the committee, Mark Gbillah, said the House might be forced to invoke its powers to compel the duo to appear.

He stated this in Abuja on Wednesday during the session at the House.

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“We’ve not been getting any form of cooperation from the Ministry of Finance and Attorney-General’s office regarding this investigation despite series of correspondents sent to them on this matters we’re investigating.”

He said documentations from the Accountant-General’s Office had revealed that the Minister of Finance approved the payment of substantial amounts of money to whistleblowers without providing details of the monies recovered.

He also cited media reports where the Federal Government confirmed recoveries of millions of dollars through whistleblower revelations on behalf of the country.

He, however, noted that the legislature had not seen “where those monies were routed through the constitutional appropriation process before they were expended.

“The constitution is very clear about the receipt and expenditure of Nigeria’s money. We’ve looked at the functions of the Attorney-General’s office and we’ve not seen any statutory powers provided for the Attorney-General by the constitution to determine how Nigeria’s money should be spent.

“There was an incident about a whistleblower who made a formal report to Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit about $200m paid into two companies account Biz Plus, and GSCL allegedly for consultancy services, which allegedly were approved by the Attorney General’s office on the approval of Mr President.

“We need the Honourable Minister of Finance and the Attorney-General of the Federation to appear before this House to provide clarity on the inflows that have come in from whistleblowers recoveries, and about these monies that were recovered, and the CBN is required to provide information that has been provided by these whistleblowers about substantial amounts of monies that were paid supposedly and allegedly for consultancy services when there’s no record of any agreement entered into by those companies regarding any services.

“These are very weighty allegations and as a responsible House, we owe everybody fair hearing and a benefit of doubt, and this is what we’ve been seeking to accord those who have been mentioned in these allegations.”