The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) will appeal a Federal High Court ruling that excluded nine properties linked to former Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, from final forfeiture.
EFCC Chairman, Ola Olukoyede, disclosed this on Wednesday at the 43rd Cambridge International Symposium on Economic Crime at Jesus College, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom.
Olukoyede said the commission had traced 57 properties to Malami and secured final forfeiture of 48 of them. The remaining nine properties are located in Kebbi and Kaduna states.
“Even the nine that were left for him, I’m considering filing an appeal so that we can take everything away from him,” Olukoyede said.
The development follows a July 15 judgment by Justice Joyce Abdulmalik of the Federal High Court in Abuja, which ordered the final forfeiture of 48 properties linked to the former minister.
The court, however, discharged the interim forfeiture order on nine properties after finding that the EFCC had not sufficiently established that they were acquired through unlawful activities.
The 57 properties had earlier been placed under an interim forfeiture order in January. The EFCC had valued the assets at more than N212 billion, while the 48 properties eventually forfeited were valued at about N180.4 billion, according to court records cited by Premium Times.
Speaking on asset recovery at the Cambridge symposium, Olukoyede said effective asset tracing, credible intelligence, and judicial support were critical to recovering suspected proceeds of crime.
He also announced that the EFCC would reward whistleblowers with between 2.5 per cent and five per cent of recovered assets where information provided leads to the recovery of stolen Nigerian assets.
He urged members of the public with credible information about illicit Nigerian assets, particularly those moved abroad, to report them to the commission.
The 2026 Cambridge symposium is themed “Asset Recovery and the Rule of Law – Taking the Profit Out of Crime.”
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