Godwin Tsa Abuja 

Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar  Malami, has explained that the struggle to recover the sum of $62.1 billion debt from International Oil Companies for the Federal Government was not for any personal  percuniary interest. 

In a statement by his media aide, Dr. Umar Gwandu, Malami said the move was propelled by his patriotic committed to get the money back for the country.

He vowed to protect his hard earned integrity has threatened legal actions against an online media for insinuating without proof that he is involved in underhand deals in the Abacha loot.

The minister reiterated his stance that the matter was neither propelled by any ulterior motive nor about gratification of anypersonal desire through any percentage to be given to the recovery agent, but of an unflinching patriotic commitment to get back to the country the revenue it deserves.

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“It has never been the tradition of the Attorney-General of the Federation to demand much-less of accepting a Kobo on matters relating to such engagements and conduct of his official duties. Multiple  agents were overtime engaged in that respect without pecuniary  consideration”, he affirmed.

Malami said it has never been the tradition of the office of the Attorney-General of the Federation to effect payment of the professional fees. It is a “function exclusively vested in Federal Ministry of Finance which has the right to vet, confirm and interrogate issues before any payment is made. And payments are made upon recovery directly to the recovery agent and not to the Office of  Attorney-General, he said.

Malami said rather than adopting campaign of calumny, evasive and  dilly-dally techniques and tactics, the oil companies and their allies should channel such efforts toward paying the Federal Government its due, so as to execute more developmental projects in the country.

Against the insinuations that he hired the recovery agent to carry-out the task, he said Trobell International Ltd was the agency that originally came up with the idea of the liabilities of the oil companies for the consideration of the government adding that the Supreme Court case to that effect was a product of joint efforts and understanding established by the parties at the instance of the company.