The Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr Abubakar Malami has come under severe criticism over the vehicles that included Lexus SUV, Mercedes Benz GLK, Toyota SUV and other brands that he allegedly shared to All Progressives Congress (APC), Executive committee members and delegates of the party.
Malami, who is the Attorney General of the Federation since 2015 in the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari, has declared his intention to contest for the Governorship ticket of Kebbi state on the platform of the APC.
The development has attracted criticisms from some of his professional colleagues who are equally Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SAN), who have not only faulted the car gifts by Malami but also for accepting over N135 million as donation from friends, stressing that the act clearly violated the Electoral Act 2022 as amended and the Code of Conduct for public officers.
The senior lawyers specifically said that Malami breached Paragraph 6 of Part 1 of the 5th Schedule to the Constitution and the Code of Conduct for public officials.
However, Malami speaking through his Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Dr Jubril Gwandu, said he has teeming supporters from home and beyond, adding that this has been demonstrated not only by the calls from far and near for him to vie for the Kebbi gubernatorial seat in the forthcoming election but also by donations from friends, associates and supporters of N135m.
Gwandu explained that the recent donation of N135m has opened doors for donations and support of many items including vehicles by well-wishers, stressing that the alleged distribution of vehicles by Malami was a mischievous and misconstrued information.
In the words of Gwandu; “It was friends and associates of Malami who donated and distributed vehicles to long-term workers in the Khadimiyya Foundation. The occasion was not for distribution of vehicles to any APC stakeholder. None of the APC stakeholders or delegates in Kebbi State was given any vehicle by Malami”.
Commenting on the matter, Mr Femi Falana said that based on the provisions of Paragraph 6 (1) of the Code of Conduct for public officers, it is clearly stated that; ‘A public officer shall not ask for or accept property or benefits of any kind for himself or any other person on account of anything done or omitted to be done by him in the discharge of his duties.’
Similarly, Ifedayo Adedipe SAN, castigate Malami for receiving the donations, stressing that it was not only wrong but illegal, adding that the act was contrary to the provisions of the constitution.
In his words; “Such illegalities thrive in the country because of lack of political will to enforce the laws.
“Imagine the Attorney-General of the United States while still in office declaring that he would be contesting for the governorship of say, Arizona or any other state and then saying unabashedly that his friends; faceless and nameless friends have donated vehicles. He would face prosecution.
“For a government that came into office on the mantra of change, I would have thought that we would change our ways of doing things for the better.
“Can we say this particular development (vehicle donation) is yet another attestation to the fact that when the APC people gathered together, it was just to collect power, not to change our life for the better? It is sad.
“For me, it is wrong for a public officer to attract the donations of that nature contrary to the extant provisions of the constitution,” he posited.
In his own comment, another lawyer, Tosin Ojaomo noted that Section 121 of the Electoral Act 2022, described the receipt of the donations by Malami as bribery and conspiracy.
However, former General Secretary of the Nigerian Bar Association, Afam Osigwe SAN, said that he does not think that Malami violated the law, adding that the AGF could receive political donations as an aspirant.
Osigwe further said; “I have not read the current Electoral Act but I know the law permits people to accept donations but, I don’t know what limit or the value of the vehicles. Now, the law also permits people to donate to political objectives.
“Issues such as the value and limit of political donations to candidates needed to be cleared. Certain campaign expenses appeared not to be captured by the law. What is the threshold? What is the value and what limit has the law placed on individual contribution and what is the maximum amount the current Electoral Act has set for the candidates in an election cycle? At what time does that money start counting? There are campaign expenses that appeared not to be captured by the law.
“There is the one that until you become a candidate, this money would not start counting. So, these are issues we need to clear first. But I do not think that making contributions to a person who holds a public office is barred by the Code of Conduct for public officers,” he said.
The position of Osigwe buttressed the statement by Gwandu, who said that friends and loyalists of the Malami donated the exotic vehicles of different brands to support his ambition of becoming the governor of Kebbi State in 2023 in addition to N135million contributed for the AGF’s governorship ambition.
Gwandu also said that the friends of Malami gifted the vehicles to long-term workers in the Khadimiyya Foundation for which the AGF is one of the stakeholders of the foundation, a non-governmental organisation based in Kebbi.
