Court Orders Final Forfeiture of 48 Properties Linked to Ex-AGF Malami, Clears Nine Others

Court Orders Final Forfeiture of 48 Properties Linked to Ex-AGF Malami, Clears Nine Others

The Federal High Court in Abuja has ordered the final forfeiture of 48 properties linked to former Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, after ruling that they were proceeds of suspected unlawful activities.

In a judgment delivered on Wednesday, Justice Joyce Abdulmalik held that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had established sufficient evidence showing that the properties were acquired with illicit funds.

The court ruled that Malami failed to provide credible evidence demonstrating that the assets were purchased through legitimate sources of income.

Justice Abdulmalik dismissed several applications and motions filed by the former AGF, members of his family, and companies associated with the disputed assets, holding that the central issue before the court was not ownership but the legitimacy of the funds used to acquire the properties.

"The question before the court is not who owns the properties but whether the funds used to acquire them were lawfully obtained," the judge held.

She further ruled that the respondents failed to rebut the reasonable suspicion raised by the EFCC that the properties were acquired through unlawful means.

However, the court declined the anti-graft agency's request for the final forfeiture of nine other properties located in Kebbi and Kaduna states, holding that the EFCC failed to establish that those assets were proceeds of unlawful activities.

Background

The ruling follows an interim forfeiture order granted in January involving 57 properties allegedly linked to Malami and two of his sons, Abdulaziz Malami and Abiru Rahman Malami.

At the time, the EFCC told the court that the assets—valued at approximately ₦213.23 billion—were reasonably suspected to have been acquired with proceeds of unlawful activities.

The properties include hotels, residential buildings, schools, parcels of land and a printing press located across Kebbi, Kano and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

Following the interim forfeiture order, Malami rejected the EFCC's valuation of the assets, accusing the commission of deliberately inflating their worth to mislead the court. He described the figures presented by the anti-graft agency as "manifest exaggeration" and "malicious inflation."

The former AGF, alongside his wife and one of his sons, is also facing a separate 16-count money laundering charge involving an alleged ₦8.71 billion, a case currently being prosecuted by the EFCC.