The Federal High Court sitting in Abuja has ordered the interim forfeiture of 57 landed properties allegedly linked to unlawful activities involving a former Minister of Justice, Mr Abubakar Malami, SAN.
The ruling directs that the assets be temporarily forfeited to the Federal Government pending further proceedings.
Justice Emeka Nwite issued the order after granting an ex parte application brought before the court by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission through its counsel, Ekele Iheanacho, SAN.
The properties, valued in several billions of naira, are spread across Abuja, Kebbi, Kano and Kaduna States. Although the ruling was delivered on Tuesday, a certified true copy of the order became public on Wednesday, according to the News Agency of Nigeria.
In granting the application, the court held that the properties were reasonably suspected to be proceeds of unlawful activities. Justice Nwite ordered that the interim forfeiture be publicised in a national daily to notify any individual or organisation with an interest in the assets.
Such parties, the court ruled, would have 14 days from the date of publication to show cause why the properties should not be permanently forfeited to the Federal Government.
The judge further adjourned the matter to a later date in January for a report on compliance with the court’s directives. The assets affected by the order include several high-value residential and commercial properties, hotels, plazas, plots of land, warehouses and estates acquired across multiple years, with some purchases dating back to 2016.
The court documents indicate that many of the properties were bought during Malami’s tenure as Attorney-General of the Federation, with some later undergoing extensive upgrades that significantly increased their estimated value.
According to the EFCC, the interim forfeiture is connected to an ongoing criminal case in which Malami, his wife Hajia Bashir Asabe, and his son, Abubakar Abdulaziz, are standing trial over an alleged N8.7 billion money laundering scheme. The anti-graft agency alleges that the defendants used corporate entities and third parties to acquire properties and move funds in a manner designed to conceal their origin.
The charge, filed under reference number FHC/ABJ/CR/700/2025, accuses the defendants of engaging in suspicious financial transactions and retaining funds they allegedly knew were proceeds of unlawful activity. The EFCC claims that between 2015 and 2025, a period covering Malami’s eight years as Attorney-General under the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari, the defendants conspired to disguise the source of large sums of money through bank accounts and real estate acquisitions in Abuja, Kano and Kebbi.
In one of the counts, the commission alleged that between July 2022 and June 2025, Malami and his son instructed a firm, Metropolitan Auto Tech Limited, to conceal over one billion naira in a Sterling Bank account, despite allegedly knowing that the funds were linked to unlawful activities.
The EFCC maintains that the actions of the defendants violated provisions of the Money Laundering (Prohibition and Prevention) Acts of 2011, as amended, and 2022.
What you should know
The interim forfeiture order does not amount to a final confiscation of the properties but is a temporary legal step meant to preserve the assets while the trial continues.
Interested parties still have the right to challenge the forfeiture within the timeframe set by the court.
The case forms part of a broader EFCC investigation into alleged large-scale financial misconduct during Malami’s time as Attorney-General, and its outcome could have significant implications for asset recovery efforts and high-profile corruption prosecutions in Nigeria.
