By Gabriel Ewepu

ABUJA—A coalition of 11 Civil Society Organisations, CSOs,has asked President Muhammadu Buhari to drop one of the ministerial nominees, Abubakar Malami, who was Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation, AGF, over alleged unethical actions in the anti-corruption fight.

Abubakar Malami

At a briefing, they also threatened to approach the court if Buhari went ahead to reappoint Malami as minister, claiming it would be against the constitution to reappoint somebody with such case.

The CSOs that jointly signed the statement included Peering Advocacy and Advancement Centre for Africa, PAACA; YIAGA Africa; Civil Society Legislative and Advocacy Centre, CISLAC; Centre for Transparency Advocacy, CTA; African Centre for Media and Information Literacy, AFRICMIL; Protest to Power, P2P; Keen and Care Initiative; Connected Development, CODE; Social Action; Yes Project, and Lawyers Network Against Corruption, LAWNAC.

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They alleged that Malami was a “barrier-in-chief” to President Buhari’s ‘intention’ to fight corruption.

Speaking on behalf of the coalition,  Convener, SNC, Mr. Ezenwa Nwagwu, and Executive Director, CISLAC, Auwal Musa Rafsanjani, claimed Malami engaged two Nigerian lawyers, Oladipo Okpeseyi and Temitope Adebayo, for the recovery of $321 million Abacha loot from Switzerland, in spite that the hired Swiss lawyer, Enrico Monfrini, had completed the job and had been on the issue since 2000.

According to them, the Federal Government went on secretly in May 2019 to pay the two newly engaged Nigerian lawyers $15 million despite the outcry of Nigerians.