On Monday, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) gave nine pieces of evidence against Mr. Abubakar Malami, SAN, the immediate former Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice.
Mashelia Arhyel Bata, the Fourth Prosecution Witness (PW4), a Compliance Officer with Zenith Bank Plc., presented the documentary exhibits at the start of the trial before Justice Joyce Abdulmalik of the Federal High Court in Abuja.
The former AGF, his wife Hajia Bashir Asabe, and his son Abubakar Abdulaziz Malami are all on trial for 16 counts of money laundering, corruption, and fraud.
The anti-graft agency is accusing the defendants of conspiracy, procuring, disguising, hiding, and laundering the proceeds of illegal activities worth N8,713,923,759.49.
The act that is being accused of is said to have gone against the Money Laundering Prevention and Prohibition Act, 2022.
During the proceedings on Monday, prosecution lawyer Jibrin Okutepa, SAN, led the PW4 in evidence. He told the court that, as part of his official duties, he received letters from the EFCC asking for documents related to several accounts linked to the defendants and their businesses.
“I am a compliance officer at Zenith Bank’s Maitama branch. He said, “It is my job to get letters from law enforcement and respond to them as needed.”
Bata also said that the bank followed the EFCC’s requests by giving them both digital and physical copies of documents about the accounts of the defendants and companies like Rayhaan Hotels Limited, Rayhaan Bustan Agro Allied Limited, Nashab Limited, Golden Age Global Ventures, and Rahamaniyya Properties Limited.
He said, “My lord, the documents are nine,” which meant he could tell them apart when they were shown in court.
The court allowed the documents, which were dated between July 19, 2024 and March 12, 2026, to be used as Exhibits D1 to D9. This was despite an initial objection from defense attorney Joseph Daudu, SAN, who said that “the dates are almost all in March.”
Ekele Iheanacho, SAN, a different prosecution lawyer, continued to question the witness, who gave more information about the transactions shown in the exhibits.
He said that Exhibit D1 had papers and statements for opening accounts for Abubakar Malami and A.A. Malami & Co. These accounts included a naira account and a dollar account.
He said that the statement of account for one of the accounts covered the time from January 1, 2012 to December 31, 2023.
The witness said that the accounts were active from 2015 to 2023 and that “there were transfers within that time.”
He also said that between January 1, 2016, and December 31, 2023, the total credits into one of the accounts were N383,637,21.55. From January 1, 2012, to December 31, 2015, the total credits were N560,506,465.12.
He said that between 2016 and 2023, N384,322,120.85 was recorded as debits, and between 2012 and 2015, N571,891,174.08 was debited.
The witness told the court that on November 11, 2020, New Horizons Limited sent N194,791,608.00 to the account, and on June 24, 2022, Rayhaan Bustan Agro Allied Limited sent N622,500,000.00 to the account.
He also said that Rayhaan Hotels Limited sent N250 million to the account on July 1 and July 7, 2022. On December 22, 2022, there was an inflow of N500 million linked to Rayhaan Bustan Agro Allied Limited.
The witness went on to name so many transactions worth billions of naira in the same way.
After the testimony, Joseph Daudu SAN, the defense attorney, asked for a break so he could look over the evidence and get ready for cross-examination.
Daudu said, “My lord, we need time to look over the nine exhibits.”
Justice Abdulmalik then set May 13, 2026, as the date for the trial to continue.
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