Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami (SAN), has said that the pressure mounted on oil companies to pay up $62.197bn arrears of their indebtedness to Nigeria was not with any ulterior motive but a patriotic intention.
Malami maintained that he does not need a dime from any agent as he was not interested in sharing any percentage with recovery agent.
In a statement by Umar Jubril Gwandu, aide to the minister on Thursday, it was explained that the issue of percentage is one that is vested in the Ministry of Finance to determine.
The statement reads, “It has never been the tradition of the Attorney-General of the Federation to demand much less accepting a kobo on matters relating to such engagements and conduct of his official duties.
“Multiple agents were overtime engaged in that respect without pecuniary consideration.
“The function exclusively vested in Federal Ministry of Finance which has the right to vet, confirm and interrogate issues before any payment is made.
“And payments are made upon recovery, directly to the recovery agent and not to the Office of Attorney-General.”
