We will not pay US-based lawyer 40 percent of Abacha’s loot – FG

The Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, on Thursday, dismissed the claim by a US-based Nigerian lawyer, Godson Nnaka, who said he was entitled to 40 percent of the $550m Abacha loot the US government is about to return to Nigeria.

In a 44-page document, Malami said the Nigerian government will not pay the amount Nnaka is asking for because he is not qualified to practise law in the Maryland area where the case is taking place.
The document also said the US based lawyer did not recover any money for the country 14 years after the former Attorney General of the Federation, Olujimi, gave him a provisional letter to help locate and recover the loot.

Malami described Nnaka as a man trying to reap from where he did not sow.

According to the document, the Maryland court dismissed Nnaka’s claim to had represented Nigeria because the temporary letter Olujimi gave to him was not revalidated by Mohammed Adoke when the forfeiture case resumed in 2013.
However, the US based lawyer has appealed against the position, threatening to sue the AGF over comments that he was not qualified to represent Nigeria and was not entitled to 40 percent of the loot in question.