By Soni Daniel

Abuja—The Federal Government has boasted that its anti-corruption war was progressing, with more Nigerians keying into the fight with useful information through whistle blowing.

The Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, who disclosed this in an interview with Vanguard in Abuja, said the amount of money recovered from looters had also risen from what was earlier reported since the recovery was ongoing. He did not, however, give the exact amount.

The minister said the collaboration among the three levels of government had aided the recovery process and praised Nigerians for standing by the administration to fight the menace of graft, which had stalled the progress of the nation over the years.

AttorneyGeneral of Federation and Minister of Justice Abubakar Malami

Malami vowed that the war would not slow down until the commonwealth of the people stolen and stockpiled by a few greedy persons was recovered and out to greater public use.

Asked why the OHAGF withdrew corruption charges against the Supreme Court Registrar and others accused of N2 billion fraud, the minister said the action was taken in overriding public interest.

Malami said: “We discovered that they were many cases involving hundreds of billions of public money which we still need witnesses for the judiciary to be able to successfully prosecute and recover such funds and we opted to have a rethink on whether we should proceed with the case of slow down.

“Indeed, we withdrew the charges against the Supreme Court officials in overall public interest and we will continue to see how best to approach the matter so that Nigeria becomes the winner in the end,” he said.

It was not clear as at last night if the federal government withdrew the criminal charges against the top officials so as to use them as witnesses against high-profile officials now standing corruption trials.

Asked why all the judges, who were arrested last year for alleged corruption have not been tried, the minister disclosed that the cases would be tried in batches and that more evidence was being gathered to boost the prosecution base against the suspects.