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LequteMan
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The Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, and a federal government appointed investigator Tony Uboh are embroiled in a dogfight over some looted funds, Premium Times reports.
Uboh is saying Malami is undermining President Muhammadu Buhari's anticorruption fight while the other said Uboh deceitfully obtained federal consent for the job by concealing his criminal past.
According to Uboh two weeks after he obtained a mandate to “trace, recover and remit Federal government’s funds that are allegedly trapped in Nigerian banks,” he was able to trace N324 billion [about $1 billion] after which he wrote to inform the minister attaching proofs of the monies in several banks.
“Instead of following up to recover these monies, the minister wrote to me informing me that my mandate has been terminated,”
“While I am not against the revocation of my mandate, I am concerned that while President Muhammadu Buhari is busy travelling around the world tracing stolen wealth, his minister is not interested in recovering stolen monies stashed in various Nigerian banks which can be easily recovered,” he said indignantly.
Responding, Malami said “even though Mr. Uboh said he had privileged information to recover over N1 trillion on behalf of the Federal government that were with banks and associated ministries, departments and agencies of government but out of caution, I restricted his instruction exclusively to banks in respect of which he said he could recover about N400 billion immediately.”
According to him, he became concerned when Mr. Uboh’s company, Panic Alert Security System [PASS], embarked on a fishing expedition, carrying out its brief beyond the bounds of its contract, exploring and extending his recovery reach to ministries, departments and agencies that were clearly out of the scope of his instructions.
“That gave me a second concern when some MDAs reached out to me seeking clarification,” the minister said, adding that Mr. Uboh’s method of work also spurred some worry because, while he suggested that he had information on bank accounts where government money were lodged, it turned out that Mr. Uboh went to the banks and MDAs, armed with his mandate, asking them to open their books and be given access to their data for the purpose of executing the instruction.
Uboh is saying Malami is undermining President Muhammadu Buhari's anticorruption fight while the other said Uboh deceitfully obtained federal consent for the job by concealing his criminal past.
According to Uboh two weeks after he obtained a mandate to “trace, recover and remit Federal government’s funds that are allegedly trapped in Nigerian banks,” he was able to trace N324 billion [about $1 billion] after which he wrote to inform the minister attaching proofs of the monies in several banks.
“Instead of following up to recover these monies, the minister wrote to me informing me that my mandate has been terminated,”
“While I am not against the revocation of my mandate, I am concerned that while President Muhammadu Buhari is busy travelling around the world tracing stolen wealth, his minister is not interested in recovering stolen monies stashed in various Nigerian banks which can be easily recovered,” he said indignantly.
Responding, Malami said “even though Mr. Uboh said he had privileged information to recover over N1 trillion on behalf of the Federal government that were with banks and associated ministries, departments and agencies of government but out of caution, I restricted his instruction exclusively to banks in respect of which he said he could recover about N400 billion immediately.”
According to him, he became concerned when Mr. Uboh’s company, Panic Alert Security System [PASS], embarked on a fishing expedition, carrying out its brief beyond the bounds of its contract, exploring and extending his recovery reach to ministries, departments and agencies that were clearly out of the scope of his instructions.
“That gave me a second concern when some MDAs reached out to me seeking clarification,” the minister said, adding that Mr. Uboh’s method of work also spurred some worry because, while he suggested that he had information on bank accounts where government money were lodged, it turned out that Mr. Uboh went to the banks and MDAs, armed with his mandate, asking them to open their books and be given access to their data for the purpose of executing the instruction.