Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN), rebutted reports that his firm was engaged by his office to recover about $62bn oil debt from some international firms.
Malami, in a statement issued by his Special Assistant on Media and Public Relations, Dr. Umar Gwandu, on Friday, outrightly denied any such engagement or even having a personal ‘debt collectors’ firm.
“For the avoidance of doubt, the Office of the Attorney General and Minister of Justice does not engage recovery agents based on projected personal gratification or individual’s inclinations,” he said.
The Minister also stressed that those engaged by the Federal Government to undertake certain tasks in the recovery of assets and generation of revenues belonging to the government do not belong to him.
“Such engagements were purely based on the interest of the general public as a guiding principle,” the statement added.
It read further: “The Minister reiterated his stance that engagement of recovery agents was neither propelled by any ulterior motive nor about the gratification of any personal desire through any percentage to be given to or by the recovery agent, but of an unflinching patriotic commitment to getting back to the country the revenue it deserves.
“It is the same Federal Government that engaged the Trobell in the recovery of the unpaid Federal Government revenue that asked the agency to step down based on the stakeholders meeting held.”
