Former president Olusegun Obasanjo, had scathing remarks for some of the officials under the watch of former president Muhammadu Buhari, especially his Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami (SAN).
Describing Malami as “the devil’s workshop,” Obasanjo in his book “Nigeria: Past and Future” mentioned that “the most atrocious waste, enthronement of corruption, and discouragement of officials fighting corruption took place under the watch of President Buhari and the devil’s workshop, his Attorney General, Abubakar Malami.”
Obasanjo stated that though it was difficult for the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) to secure convictions of VIPs involved in grand corruption, this difficult task was achieved with the jailing of former governor of Plateau State, Joshua Dariye, for 10 years and his Taraba counterpart, Jolly Nyame, for 12 years over N1.126bn and N1.64bn embezzlement of state funds, respectively.
Dariye and Nyame were released from the correctional facility in the Kuje council area of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) on August 8, 2022, four months after they were granted state pardon.
At a Council of State meeting presided over by former President Buhari in April 2022, Dariye and Nyame were among 159 inmates granted presidential pardons.
The two former governors, who were both jailed for fraud and embezzlement of public funds, were granted pardon on the grounds of age and ill health.
Nyame was convicted in 2018 and given 14 years imprisonment for diverting public funds, but his sentence was later reduced to 12 years in 2020, following a ruling by the Supreme Court, which affirmed the judgement of the court of appeal on the matter.
Dariye was sentenced to 14 years in prison for N1.126bn fraud, but his jail term was reduced by four years, following a verdict by the Supreme Court affirming an earlier judgement by the appellate court.
Speaking on their pardon, Obasanjo stated that it was based on the strong advice of Malami as AGF.
The elder statesman said Buhari sought the advice of the Council of State to grant the two former governors presidential pardon on health grounds.
“But for my absence at the Council of State meeting when the governors were granted the presidential pardon, I would have rather said that the governors should be released from jail on health grounds and not granted presidential pardon.
“Words circulated later that neither of them had a life-threatening illness; it was all made up.
“It was all part of Malami’s financial shenanigans, and he played many of them to his advantage. His principal concurred, condoned, turned a blind eye and a deaf ear, and paid lip service to fighting corruption while cohabitating comfortably with corruption in multifarious ways.
“I was made to understand that some officials of the EFCC were terribly disappointed, discouraged, downcast, and lost the pep in doing their work of fighting corruption as a result of this government action,” Obasanjo said.
