Today, we call on President Muhammadu Buhari to also beam his searchlight on the Attorney General and Minister of Justice Abubakar Malami, who is now widely alleged as the stumbling block in the war against corruption and in particular the drive to sanitise the rut that is now Nigeria football.
The National Association of Nigeria Footballers (NANF), speaking from the inside of Nigeria football, is calling on President Buhari to also take on Malami, who is accused of being the real enemy within in the anti-corruption war of our dear President.
Malami is systematically misleading the President to do away with patriotic Nigerians who are dedicated to the fight against corruption in order to get his several accomplices off the hook.
First it was Obono Obla and now Ibrahim Magu…
The NANF is not taking sides whether Magu and Obla are saints, but we are aligning with the interim position of The Presidential Advisory committee on Anti- corruption (PACAC).
The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) is a typical government parastatal that is in a massive mess of corruption that Malami as the AGF continues to shield among many other weighty allegations.
Mr President, the NANF did a petition to your esteemed office dated 24th May 2019 in this respect.
How Malami managed to return as Attorney General and Minister of Justice inspite of the flurry of petitions against him that inundated Mr President’s office is still a mystery to millions of Nigerians.
Mr President, Abubakar Malami is a mole in your kitchen cabinet and a disaster to the war against corruption.
Malami is now allegedly shielding corrupt principal officers of the NFF, who allegedly stole over $16.5million and another 7 billion Naira revenue generated as sponsorship funds.
Abubakar Malami through his Director of Public Prosecution mounted undue pressure on Obono Obla, the former Chairman of defunct Special Presidential Investigation Panel (SPIP) to back down on the investigation of top officials of the NFF.
When Obla refused to back down and proceeded to prosecute the accused persons in charge number FHC/CR/93/2019 (Federal Republic of Nigeria Vs Amaju Pinnick and others), the office of the AGF relying on an arranged spurious petition after alleged clandestine meetings with the AGF, Director of public prosecution and the accused persons, the AGF in an orchestrated manner with intent to compromise the ongoing criminal proceeding wrote an official letter to the former chairman of SPIP dated 25-05-2019 to hand over the file in charge number FHC/ABJ/CR/93/2019 before Hon. Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu.
When the former SPIP chairman refused to hand over the file, the AGF set him up to President Buhari for dismissal and eventual dissolution of the SPIP and Malami’s office allegedly proceeded to bungle the case against the top NFF officials in Hon. Justice Ojukwu’s court.
That matter as we speak is completely abandoned by the AGF office.
Still in the process of shielding the top NFF officials, who he is rumoured to have family ties with one or two of them, Malami’s office allegedly dispatched his men to another criminal proceeding against NFF top officials being prosecuted in charge number FCT/HC/CR/324/2018 by the EFCC before Hon. Justice Peter Affen.
The AGF office interrupted proceedings and requested for a so-called harmonization of all criminal charges against top officials of the NFF.
One may ask at this juncture what is the interest of Malami in criminal charges against top officials of the NFF?
Abubakar Malami’s office has also succeeded in bungling the ongoing criminal charges before Hon. Justice Affen.
It is in the light of the above, Mr President, that the National Association of Nigeria Footballers(NANF) calling on you that Abubakar Malami having severally breached his oath of office should also face the Hon. Justice Salami Panel.
Mr President, our case is one of several complaints and accusations against the Attorney General and Minister of Justice and Mr President must act now, if not Malami’s next target would be the chairman of the ICPC, a fine gentleman diligently doing his job.
This same Malami has rubbished a Supreme Court Judgment in suit number SC/731/2016 against these same NFF officials.
Mr President a stitch in time will save your administration.
BY HARRISON JALLA, President (NANF)