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Abubakar Malami (SAN), the former Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, has been charged with money laundering by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

The Nation reports that Malami will be charged with sixteen counts.

He was accused by the EFCC under Section 15(2)(d) of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act, 2011, as amended, and was subject to punishment under Section 15(3).

He, his son Abdulaziz, and Hajia Bashir Asabe, an employee of Rahamaniyya Properties Limited, are all indicted.

Malami was accused of laundering almost ₦9 billion to purchase upscale homes in Abuja, Kebbi, Kano, and other locations in the first of three series of charges.

The ex-AGF must explain how he acquired roughly thirty homes for ₦212.8 billion.

According to reports, the most of them were obtained during his eight years in office as part of the late President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration.

Some of the properties may be seized by the EFCC using the Non-Conviction Asset Forfeiture section of its Establishment Act.

Anyone interested has a 14-day window to provide justification for why the assets shouldn’t be turned over to the federal government.

The Federal High Court in Abuja has not yet provided the anti-graft commission with a start date for the trial.

The date of the charge sheet was December 23, 2025.

Jibrin Okutepa (SAN) and Ekene Iheanacho (SAN), along with fourteen other attorneys, will prosecute Malami in what seems to be the mother of all cases.

In compliance with the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA), no fewer than ten witnesses have been brought before the court.

The 16 accusations exposed how Malami used Metropolitan Auto Tech Limited for money laundering.

“That you, Abubakar Malami SAN and Abubakar Abdulaziz Malami, between July 2022 and June 2025 in Abuja within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, did procure Metropolitan Auto Tech Limited to conceal the unlawful origin of the total sum of ₦1, 014, 848, 500.00 (One Billion, Fourteen Million, Eight Hundred and Forty Eight Thousand Five Hundred Naira) in the Sterling Bank Plc Account No. 0079182387. As a result, you violated Section 21(c) of the Money Laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Act 2022.

“That between September 2020 and February 2021 in Abuja, under the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, you, Abubakar Malami SAN, as the Attorney-General of the Federation, and Abubakar Abdulaziz Malami, procured Metropolitan Auto Tech Limited to conceal the unlawful origin of the total sum of ₦600,013,460.4 in the Sterling Bank Plc Account No. 007918(c) of the Money Laundering Prohibition Act 2011, as amended by Act No. 1 of 2012).

“That you, Abubakar Malami SAN, while serving as the Attorney-General of the Federation and Abubakar Abdulaziz Malami in Abuja, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, retained the entire amount of ₦600,000,000.00 in Metropolitan Auto Tech Limited as cash collateral for a loan of ₦500,000,000.00 granted to RAYHAAN HOTELS LTD by Sterling Bank Plc, and you thereby committed an offence against Section 18(c) of the Money Laundering Prohibition Act 2011 as amended, which is punishable under section 15(

“That you, Abubakar Malami SAN, while serving as the Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Abdulaziz Malami, and Hajia Bashir Asabe, an employee of Rahamaniyya Properties Limited, indirectly concealed the unlawful origin of the total sum of ₦500,000,000.00 paid to Efab Properties Ltd. for the purchase of a property known as a luxury duplex at Amazon Street, Plot No. 3011 within Cadastral Zone A06 Maitama District, Abuja, when you had a crime against section 18(2)(a).

A few months after taking office, Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister Nyesom Wike allegedly promised President Bola Tinubu that he would hold the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) for him in 2027, according to Oyo State Governor Seyi Makinde.

In an interview with journalists on Tuesday, Makinde revealed that the reason he was upset with the former governor of Rivers State was that Wike wanted to back the president in 2027 and didn’t want the PDP to.

“The real issue is that I was in a meeting with the president and Wike,” he stated, going into further detail about his disagreement with Wike. I’m stating this in a public conversation. Along with a few other people, the president’s chief of staff attended that meeting. “Sir, I’ll hold PDP for you in 2027,” Wike declared to the president. I was shocked. We then got to the veranda and got up. “Wike, did we agree to this?” I asked. I’m not fond of discussing individuals. But let me discuss the actual problem. Wike’s desire to back the president for 2027 is the true problem. It’s acceptable. He is free to act in such way. However, he should also let us do our own thing if some of us want to make sure that democracy in Nigeria endures, that we don’t become a one-party state, and that the PDP survives. That is the only problem that exists between Wike and me.

“After that meeting, I confided in a common friend. I couldn’t stop thinking that the president hadn’t asked him to do this. The person who offered to do that was him.

“Maybe he was talking about an errand that the president never sent him,” I replied as I told our mutual friend. Let’s confront him. We’ll see whether he gives up. But he didn’t. I said, “Well, it’s time to confront him,” when he refused to back down. I’ll never be involved in this, I informed him that day. For this reason, I will not be voting for the president in 2027. He has Wike’s support. It’s his right. However, I also have the freedom to choose who I will support or what I will do in 2027.

Speaking further, the governor described how the president asked him to suggest a candidate for a ministerial position, but the candidate wasn’t selected. Later, in a meeting with the president, the president asked him to organize the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Oyo State, but he declined.

“The individual wasn’t selected,” he declared. Instead, they chose the existing minister of power. He was not nominated Minister of Economic Planning and Budget. He was brought to the ministry of authority. I believe I went to the president to ask for permission to modernize the airport during a later meeting. “He’ll sign it for me,” he remarked.

He claimed that the president inquired, “But what happened politically? I’ve heard that you’re disappointed that your nominee wasn’t appointed as a minister. In Yoruba nation, it’s easier to abort a pregnancy than to kill a kid, thus if you don’t want the pregnancy to be aborted, you won’t want the infant to die. You’ll choose who you want to collaborate with in the end, I said. We can only recommend individuals. However, we are only here to support you if you know persons who meet your criteria for the kind of person you want in your cabinet. But let me clarify: the minister of power lacks the ability to assist you in organizing the APC in Oyo State if you have chosen him for that purpose.

“No, no, no, Seyi, I want you to assist me in organizing the APC in Oyo State,” he added. I told him that since I am a member of the PDP, I could never assist you in organizing the APC in Oyo State. Therefore, our current situation would be substantially different if we had a government of national competency and unity.

“And allow me to bring up this Wike issue once more. The first contract that Mobil awarded Macron was precisely this one. My age was 29. The sum was $1 billion. I earned $1 billion in that single year. In 1997, I was 29 years old, and Wike had probably just graduated from law school. The chairman of the municipal government was his next position.

A splinter leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has questioned the impartiality of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) after the electoral umpire did not acknowledge the party’s National Working Committee, led by Kabiru Turaki.

There is no division within the PDP, according to a statement released on Tuesday by Ini Ememobong, the faction’s National Publicity Secretary.

It is argued that the PDP faction supporting Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister Nyesom Wike is merely a group of pals.

It further stated that they would await a court ruling about the party’s leadership because the case was still pending in court.

Recall that earlier on Tuesday, INEC declared that it would not recognize the Peoples Democratic Party’s Kabiru Turaki-led National Working Committee, citing ongoing court rulings and unresolved legal proceedings related to the party’s leadership issue.

INEC stated in a letter dated December 22, 2025, signed by Dr. Rose Oriaran-Anthony, its secretary, that it was unable to respond to requests to recognize or post on its website the list of national officers allegedly chosen at the PDP National Convention, which took place in Ibadan, Oyo State, on November 15 and 16, 2025.

The committee clarified that previous court decisions and continuing legal proceedings concerning the party’s internal leadership struggle served as the foundation for its conclusion.

INEC emphasized that while the case is still ongoing in court, it would be improper to recognize any opposing party factional officers.

But according to Ememobong, the Turaki-led group is still the real PDP leaders.

He asserted that INEC is under pressure to reject the Turaki-led leadership, but he argued that the commission has a fundamental obligation to uphold and defend democracy.

“The Peoples Democratic Party leadership reaffirms that there is no split within the party, both legally and practically. This reiteration is required in light of the letter from @inecnigeria clarifying that the Federal High Court’s rulings prevented them from identifying and uploading the data of our duly chosen leadership at the convention in Ibadan.

“The aforementioned rulings have been appealed, and a request for a stay of execution has been submitted in opposition to the rulings. The Court of Appeal will shortly consider the case and render a decision. While that is being awaited, it is important to note that INEC watched and took part in the National Executive Committee meetings where the convention’s date and location were decided upon unanimously. INEC also received the convention’s notice, which the Commission has unethically suppressed in court on multiple occasions. Additionally, INEC kept a close eye on the Ekiti and Osun primaries, and the Turaki-led NWC communicated with them. We acknowledge the tremendous pressure INEC has faced (after all, “he who pays the piper dictates the tune”), but we also remind them that their first constitutional obligation is to Nigerians and to defend and uphold democracy.

“We hope that INEC is minded by the Supreme Court’s rulings, particularly in the SDP case, which was the most recent delivered last week, prohibiting INEC from meddling in the internal leadership affairs of political parties, even though INEC claims to be impartial and is awaiting the court’s decision on the matter. Since Kabiru Tanimu Turaki SAN controls all of the PDP’s lawful institutions and administrative structure, it is still true that there is no division inside the party. The leadership of the current National Working Committee, led by Turaki SAN, has been acknowledged by the Board of Trustees, Governors Forum, State Chairmen, Senate and House of Representatives Caucuses, former Governors and Ministers, and numerous other prominent stakeholder groups during the last month. The committee of Wike and Anyanwu’s friends cannot legitimately be referred to as a PDP group since INEC must keep in mind that democracy depends on majority rule, the statement stated.

Ememobong also charged INEC with bias and hypocrisy, saying the election umpire is determined to destroy the PDP and end Nigerian democracy.

Last but not least, after our meeting with the Commission last week and our subsequent correspondence outlining pertinent issues pertaining to the current situation, we should normally not reply to this letter other than to draw attention to the electoral umpire’s complete bias and hypocrisy. INEC has consistently demonstrated bias in this case, even in court, by failing or refusing to submit papers that they knew about and had in their control, clearly to support those who are determined to destroy the PDP and end democracy. What was the purpose of last Friday’s forced meeting if INEC, led by Prof. Joash Amupitan, and SAN were aware that the case was in court? aside from creating a false impression of a faction in order to defend their acts and inactions.

“As we reposition the party for electoral success in the upcoming elections, we therefore urge all Nigerians, especially our members, to remain calm, resolute, and continue to support the party’s rebirth and renaissance moves,” the statement continued.