8 Major Activities For New Justice Ministry Team – TheNigerialawyer

By John Chuks Azu

Following his re-appointment as Attorney General of the
Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN), has set
a new Justice Agenda for his four-year tenure.

By his own admission, Malami’s re-appointment is hinged on his
performance in the first tenure of the President Muhammadu
Buhari-led administration. He hailed the contributions of the staff
of the Federal Ministry of Justice who contributed to his
achievements in his first term in office between November 2015 and
May 2019.

“I could not have achieved much success without your invaluable
support and cooperation. In fact, my re-appointment is shared
testimony and victory,” he said.

During the send-forth for his first tenure, Malami disclosed
that his first tenure saw Nigeria’s assets recovery account grow
from N19bn to N927bn as at May 2019, which was a 1,327 percent
increase in recoveries.

He said the ministry also led an increase in local recovery of
N59.163bn, $385m, and an additional N779.4m, adding that he led
Nigerian negotiations for the return of $322.5m Abacha loot with
Switzerland and the World Bank, and the expected $500m from USA,
Island of Jersey and France.

There was also recovery to the Federal Government of the sum of
$73m as ordered by the UK Commercial Court being part of the
proceeds from the sale of OPL 245 by the Malabu Oil Company, and
Eni Shell, which has also been concluded.

Malami was also pursuing many legislations to ease the
anti-corruption campaign and address the limitations to the
existing laws of the Federal Government, among which is the
Proceeds of Crime Bill.

Malami said the ministry will put its energies towards the
policy thrust of the Buhari-administration by protecting the
sovereignty, integrity, solidarity, well-being and prosperity of
the Federal Republic of Nigeria by defending the constitution,
contributing to improve security, fighting corruption, and fixing
the economy for greater benefit of all Nigerians.

It will also ensure public enlightenment, campaign for ethical
reorientation, enforcements and sanctions and recovery of proceeds
of corruption by activating sacrosanct provision of Section 15 of
the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act, 2011 (As Amended).

The eight major areas to be pursued are:

Prosecution of individuals, entities in the $9bn gas
deal

AGF Malami has stated that the Federal Government will punish
individuals and entities involved in the gas contract that resulted
in the $9bn award against Nigeria.

A British court on Friday, August 16 ordered the seizure of $9
billion Nigerian assets by Process and Industrial Development
Limited (P&ID) over a failed 20-year Gas Supply Processing
Agreement (GSPA) in 2010, on which the firm said it expended $20m
and which was not refunded to it.

Malami said the Federal Government believes the negotiation,
signing and formation of the contract involved some “underhand
manners” by some vested interests in the past administration “in
collaboration with local and international conspirators.”

“As a government that has the mandate of the people and their
interests at heart, we shall not fold our arms and allow this
injustice to go unpunished as all efforts, actions and steps shall
be taken to bring to book all private individuals, corporate
entities and government official – home and abroad and past and
present – that played direct and indirect roles in the conception,
negotiation, signing, formation as well as prosecution of the
agreement,” he said.

To intensify anti-graft war, beaming searchlight on
financial institutions

The returning AGF announced that the Justice ministry will
intensify efforts in the anti-corruption war for the next four
years, with focus on Financial Institutions (FI) and Non-designated
Financial Institutions (NDFIs) to make them “pay dearly for the
dastardly role they have played and are still playing in
encouraging and deepening corruption in Nigeria.”

“From arms procurement fraud, INEC bribery case to Diezani case
and several others, quantitative data available to the Federal
Government abundantly shows that financial institutions are
directly involved in most of the major corruption cases
investigated by the EFCC and ICPC from 2015 till date,” he
said.

Harmonious working relationship for anti-corruption
agencies

The returning justice minister has pledged to enhance the
working relationship between the anti-corruption and law
enforcement agencies. The lack of coordination has affected the
work of anti-corruption agencies in Nigeria.

“As a chief prosecution officer, I shall promptly introduce and
put in place under my watch and coordination, a quarterly meeting
of the heads of all anti-corruption, law enforcement and
prosecuting agencies in Nigeria where relevant issues bordering on
their respective capacities, relationships, funding, challenges and
possible solutions shall be discussed to ensure their optimal
performance and efficiency in the overall interest of Nigeria and
Nigerians,” he said.

Ensuring effective and timeous prosecution of
cases

Under the new administration, there will be speedy prosecution
of cases being handled by the ministry. The AGF said he will make
personal court appearances in furtherance of this new
directive.

“The overall objective of this is to assist the Federal
Government in saving more funds through use of in-house counsel/law
officers in the Attorney General’s Chambers to prosecute and defend
most of the civil and criminal cases usually farmed out to external
counsel,” Malami said.

Regular meetings with staff of ministry

Malami promised to have regular meetings with staff of the
Ministry of Justice to get first hand views and concerns on issues
that affect their work and welfare.

“Apart from prioritizing the management meetings, there shall be
prioritization of the welfare and professional needs of the staff
of the ministry through personalized capacity-building and
development schemes such as mentoring and life coaching
programmes,” he said.

Consolidating prison decongestion
programmes

The ministry will also be consolidating the on-going programme
on prison decongestion to reduce the huge cost of running the
prisons across the country.

“Decongesting the courts; reducing the workloads of our judges
at all levels; and ensuring speedy dispensation of justice by
competent, ethical and independent judicial officials will
certainly make justice accessible to the people,” Malami
stated.

Pursuing Nigeria’s membership of FATF

The ministry would pursue the registration of Nigeria as a
member of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) as part of the
efforts to reverse the country’s suspension from the body.

Considering alternative, faster and cheaper recovery of
stolen assets

The AGF said under the new administration, he will seek for
alternative means to recover stolen assets through settlements,
civil suits, non-conviction-based forfeiture proceedings,
non-prosecution agreement arrangements etc.

“The rationale for this is to save costs, resources and time
often expended on conviction-based asset forfeiture,” he added.

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