A Federal High Court in Abuja has ordered the permanent forfeiture of 48 properties linked to former Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, to the Federal Government over allegations that they were acquired with proceeds of unlawful activities.
Justice Joyce Abdulmalik, who delivered the judgment on Wednesday, held that Malami failed to provide sufficient evidence to dispel suspicions raised by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) that the assets were purchased with illicit funds.
The ruling followed an application by the anti-graft agency, which had earlier secured an interim forfeiture order covering 57 properties traced to the former minister. However, the court ruled that nine of the properties had credible evidence establishing legitimate ownership and excluded them from the final forfeiture.
Justice Abdulmalik ruled that the key issue before the court was not the ownership of the properties but whether the funds used to acquire them were legally obtained.
The judge also dismissed Malami’s argument that some of the properties belonged to his extended family in Kebbi State, holding that the EFCC had established reasonable grounds to suspect the assets were proceeds of crime.
The court relied on the provisions of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Fraud Related Offences Act, which empowers it to order the forfeiture of assets found to have been acquired through unlawful means.
The properties, valued at more than ₦212 billion, are spread across Abuja, Kano, Kaduna and Kebbi States, and include luxury residential buildings, hotels, shopping plazas, commercial properties and large parcels of land.
Malami, who served as Attorney-General and Minister of Justice under former President Muhammadu Buhari from 2015 to 2023, is currently standing trial alongside his son, Abdulaziz, and one of his wives, Hajia Bashir Asabe, on a 16-count charge bordering on alleged money laundering involving about ₦9 billion.
The EFCC alleged that the former minister used proceeds of crime to acquire high-value properties across the country in an attempt to conceal the source of the funds.
In his defence, Malami insisted that all the properties were lawfully acquired and had been duly declared in his asset declaration forms submitted to the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) in 2019 and 2023.
He accused the EFCC of relying on suspicion rather than concrete evidence, alleging that the agency exaggerated the value of the properties and misled the court in obtaining the interim forfeiture order.
Despite the objections, the court upheld the EFCC’s application, ordering the final forfeiture of the 48 properties while excluding the nine assets for which legitimate ownership was established.
Among the forfeited assets are luxury homes in Maitama, Asokoro, Gwarimpa and Wuse II in Abuja, hotels in Maitama and Jabi, commercial plazas, residential buildings in Kano and Kaduna, as well as extensive land holdings and other high-value properties in Kebbi State.