The Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Abubakar Malami, SAN, has denied knowledge or his involvement in alleged illegal sale of assets forfeited to the Federal Government. Malami, in a statement that was signed by his media aide, Dr. Umar Gwandu, said his attention was drawn to a media report alleging that a syndicate from the Federal Ministry of Justice is already secretly selling off some of the properties that were recovered by FG.
Insisting that his office has not officially started the sale of the forfeited properties, the AGF, said he has set up a 5-member Committee to investigate and ascertain the factuality of the media report.
He said the committee, which would be chaired by the Director Public Prosecution of the Federation, was inaugurated on Tuesday, with a mandate to submit its investigative report to the Solicitor General of the Federation and Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Justice, within one week.
Malami, therefore, urged members of the public, especially those that interacted with the alleged syndicate group, or have information or possessed any evidence, to furnish such details to the probe Committee.
The statement, read: “The attention of the office of the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, SAN has been drawn to a media report which allegedly claims that a syndicate allegedly from the ministry sells Federal Government’s recovered properties without the knowledge of the Attorney General of the Federation and Justice Minister.
“It is important to set the record straight that the office of the Honourable Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice has not officially started the sale of Federal Government’s property.
“The Attorney General of the Federation did not approve and was not aware of and did not order the sale of any of such properties.”