Abubakar Malami, the former Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, alongside his wife, Hajia Bashir Asabe, and son, Abubakar Abdulaziz Malami, were re-arraigned on Friday before Justice Joyce Abdulmalik of the Federal High Court in Maitama, Abuja. The trio faces an amended 16-count charge bordering on conspiracy, procuring, disguising, concealing, and laundering proceeds of unlawful activities totaling N8,713,923,759.49. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) asserts that these alleged actions contravene the provisions of the Money Laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022.

Following their re-arraignment, Justice Abdulmalik ordered that Malami and his son, the first and third defendants respectively, be remanded in Kuje Correctional Centre, while Hajia Asabe, the second defendant, was remanded in the Suleja Medium Correctional Centre. This remand is pending the determination of their formal bail applications. The re-arraignment itself followed the reassignment of the case to Justice Abdulmalik, making her the third judge to handle the trial since the charges were initially filed in December last year. The case was first brought before Justice Emeka Nwite during the Christmas/New Year break, who later returned the file for reassignment. It was then assigned to Justice Obiora Egwuatu, who subsequently withdrew on personal grounds, leading to its transfer to Justice Abdulmalik.

During Friday's proceedings, prosecution counsel, Chief J.S. Okutepa, SAN, noted that the matter was appearing before Justice Abdulmalik for the first time and sought leave for the amended charges to be read. He also drew the court’s attention to corrections needed in Counts 11 and 12 regarding numeric values, requesting they be changed to N325 million instead of N325 billion for Count 11, and N120 million instead of N120 billion for Count 12, to align with the amounts stated in words. Defence counsel, J.B. Daudu, SAN, initially raised no objection to the general amendment but later opposed the oral request for numeric correction. However, Justice Abdulmalik granted the prosecution’s request for the corrections.

The charges, after being read, saw all three defendants plead "not guilty" to the 16 counts. For instance, Count one alleges that Abubakar Malami, SAN, and Abubakar Abdulaziz Malami, between July 2022 and June 2025, procured Metropolitan Auto Tech Limited to conceal N1,014,848,500.00 in a Sterling Bank Plc account, knowing it constituted unlawful proceeds. Count five accuses Abubakar Malami, his son, and Hajia Bashir Asabe of conspiring in September 2024 to disguise the unlawful origin of N1,049,173,926.13 paid through Meethaq Hotels Limited's Union Bank Plc account between November 2022 and September 2024. Furthermore, Count six states that Malami and his son, between November 2022 and October 2025, indirectly took control of N1,362,887,872.96 paid through the Union Bank Plc savings account of Meethaq Hotels Limited, aware that these funds were proceeds of unlawful activities.

Following their plea, the prosecution requested a trial date and the remand of the defendants. The defence counsel, J.B. Daudu, SAN, argued that the defendants were already on bail, granted by Justice Emeka Nwite during their initial arraignment, and that the bail conditions had been perfected. He posited that since the Federal High Court is one, the existing bail should continue. While the prosecution conceded that bail had been previously granted and acknowledged the unity of the Federal High Court, he argued that the court retained the discretion to either adopt the previous bail terms or impose fresh conditions to ensure court attendance. In her ruling, Justice Abdulmalik held that the earlier bail had been terminated by the reassignment of the case and therefore directed the defendants to file fresh bail applications before her court. An oral bail application from the defence was rejected, with the court stressing the need for a formal application given the gravity of the allegations.

Beyond the money laundering charges, Abubakar Malami faces other significant legal challenges. The EFCC has initiated separate asset forfeiture proceedings against him, where Justice Nwite had, on January 6, issued an order for the interim forfeiture of 57 assets valued at almost N213 billion, suspected to be proceeds of unlawful activities. Malami has since challenged this interim forfeiture order, filing a motion on notice on January 27, alleging that the EFCC obtained the order through suppression of material facts and misrepresentation. He argued that the action violated his rights to property, presumption of innocence, and family life, listing six sources of income totaling approximately N14.96 billion to support his claim. Several other applicants have also joined Malami in seeking to vacate the interim forfeiture order. These forfeiture proceedings have themselves been stalled by repeated transfers of the case from one judge to another.

In addition to these, Malami and his son, Abdulaziz, were arraigned on February 3 before Justice Abdulmalik by the State Security Service (SSS) on terrorism financing and firearms charges. The SSS had arrested Malami in January, shortly after his release from Kuje Correctional Centre where he was remanded for not meeting bail conditions in the money laundering case. The terrorism financing allegations include claims that Malami, sometime in November 2022, knowingly abetted terrorism financing by allegedly refusing to prosecute suspected terrorism financiers whose case files were forwarded to his office during his tenure as AGF. Despite denying all six counts related to terrorism and firearms, Malami has remained in SSS custody. Justice Abdulmalik has adjourned the money laundering case until March 6, 2026, for the hearing of bail applications and the commencement of trial, also directing the prosecution to grant the defence team access to the defendants to prepare for trial.