During the 18th edition of the PMB Administration Scorecard Series (2015-2023) on 12th January 2021, in the nation's capital, the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami defended the contentious Presidential pardon granted to the former Governor of Plateau State, Senator Joshua Dariye and former Governor of Taraba State, Jolly Nyame, who were set free after serving imprisonment for corruption in April 2022. Malami noted that the release of the political convicts was just President Muhammadu Buhari exercising the statutory and constitutional powers vested on him relating to the pardon of Nigerians serving custodial terms.
Nyame was serving a 12- year jail sentence for diverting N1.64 billion during his tenure as governor while Dariye was serving 10- year imprisonment for N1.126 billion fraud.
While the pardon of political figures was perceived as a reflection of the loophole in the legal system that favors the rich at the expense of the poor jailed for trivial offenses, the Attorney General of the Federation insisted that the President did not consider the volume of the money or the quantum involved before granting state pardon.
Rather, he said Buhari was only acting within the concept and series of the law to the effect that the beneficiaries indeed were eligible for consideration.
Malami said the amount someone looted either in the range of N 1 billion or N5,000 was not in consideration, but the ingredients and elements associated with the matter. He said as a result of the anti-corruption drive of the Buhari administration, a total sum of N1,823,788,146.88 has been generated so far from forfeited properties.
Malami said the federal government recovered the international asset of £, 6,324, 627 .66, and Euro 5,494,731.71. In addition, $390,000,000 was also recovered. He said all recoveries were utilized in the financing of critical infrastructure, including the Abuja- Kano Expressway, the Second Niger Bridge, and the Lagos- Ibadan Expressway.
He added that 648 cases were instituted against the President, the federal government, and some of its agencies at different stages of trial in 2022 alone. He said the ministry saved the country huge debt liabilities to the tune of N142, 478, 343,000 billion that could have been paid to external solicitors as incidental professional fees through the use of in-house capacity.
He also added that the amendment of the Terrorism Prevention and Prohibition Act 2022 and the passage of the legislation into law, which declared Boko Haram, IPOB, and bandits as terrorist organizations, enabled the deployment of the Super Tucano aircraft to address the security challenges in North-east and some parts of the country.
He noted that the passage of the law gave some justification for the application and deployment of Tucanos acquired from the US government.
The minister similarly disclosed that the government also executed over 350 mutual legal assistance requests and over 50 extradition requests while other mutual legal assistance requests from Turkey, and the US on drug trafficking and other crimes were successfully treated.
