A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja has ordered the final forfeiture of 48 properties linked to the former Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami. According to Channels Television, the ruling represents the conclusion of a process that had begun with an initial interim forfeiture order, and it hands the assets over to the Federal Government. The decision marks one of the more significant asset-recovery outcomes to emerge from the courts in recent weeks, given the seniority of the office its subject once occupied.
The order was made by Justice Joyce Abdulmalik, who granted the application brought before the court by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission. The anti-graft agency had sought a final forfeiture of the properties after obtaining the earlier interim order, a legal step that temporarily placed the assets under restraint while giving any interested parties the opportunity to come forward and contest the move before the court reached a definitive conclusion.
In arriving at its decision, the court held that the commission had established a reasonable suspicion that the properties were acquired through unlawful means, and that the respondent had failed to rebut that suspicion. The central question before the judge was therefore not simply who held title to the properties, but whether the funds used to acquire them could be shown to have come from legitimate sources, a burden that the court found had not been discharged.
Before delivering the substantive judgment, Justice Abdulmalik first disposed of a series of preliminary challenges. The judge dismissed several motions and applications that had been filed by Mr Malami, by members of his family and by a number of companies linked to the properties in question. Each of those applications, the court concluded, was wanting in merit, clearing the way for the main ruling on the fate of the assets to be delivered.
The court grounded its final forfeiture order principally on Section 17 of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Fraud-Related Offences Act. That provision allows assets reasonably suspected to be the proceeds of unlawful activity to be forfeited to the state where the persons connected to them are unable to satisfy the court that the assets were lawfully acquired, and it formed the legal backbone of the commission's application in the matter.
The two-stage structure of the case, moving from an interim order to a final one, reflects the standard path that civil forfeiture proceedings follow in Nigeria. The interim stage freezes the assets and publicises the claim so that anyone with a genuine interest can be heard, while the final stage settles the question conclusively once the court is satisfied that the statutory threshold has been met and that no adequate explanation for the assets has been offered.
The ruling adds to a broader pattern of asset-recovery actions pursued through the courts as part of Nigeria's anti-corruption efforts. For the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, securing a final forfeiture against properties associated with a former holder of the country's highest legal office underscores the reach of the process, while for Mr Malami and the other respondents the outcome brings to a close, at least at this level, a contest they had sought to resist through their various applications.