The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has re-arraigned Abubakar Malami, former Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF), alongside his wife, Asabe Bashir, and son, Abdulaziz, over alleged money laundering.
They were re-arraigned on Friday, February 27, before Joyce Abdulmalik, a judge of a Federal High Court in Abuja, following the reassignment of the case.
At the resume of the hearing, Jibrin Okutepa, counsel to the EFCC, told the court that the matter was coming up for the first time before the new trial judge and applied for the defendants’ pleas to be taken.
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The EFCC counsel also applied to correct the amounts stated in counts 11 and 12 of the charge, seeking to amend the figures from N325 billion to N325 million in count 11, and from N120 billion to N120 million in count 12.
Joseph Daudu, counsel to the defendants, did not oppose the application. The court subsequently granted the request and effected the corrections.
Malami and the two other defendants thereafter pleaded not guilty to the 16-count charge.
It would be recalled that in the 16-count charge, the anti-graft agency alleged that the defendants conspired to launder proceeds of unlawful activity between 2015 and 2025, using bank accounts and corporate entities to conceal the source and ownership of the funds worth over N8.1 billion.
The EFCC alleged that the defendants routed huge sums of money through companies linked to the Malami family, including Metropolitan Auto Tech Limited and Meethaq Hotels Limited, with transactions carried out through several commercial banks.
