Court releases Malami, his spouse and child on N200m bond amid EFCC prosecution

The Federal High Court in Abuja made a significant ruling on Friday, granting bail to former Attorney-General of the Federation Abubakar Malami, his wife, and their son, who are currently embroiled in a high-profile N9 billion money laundering trial being prosecuted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.

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Malami and his family members are facing a 16-count charge related to alleged money laundering, with the trial judge, Justice Joyce Abdulmalik, overseeing the proceedings.

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At the latest sitting, Justice Abdulmalik instructed the EFCC to call its first witness, after Malami's counsel, Joseph Daudu, attempted to bring the court's attention to the defendants' pending bail application.

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The judge reminded Daudu that she had previously ruled that the bail application and other motions would be addressed after the prosecution's first witness had given their testimony.

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Following this ruling, the EFCC called David Ajoma, a compliance officer with Sterling Bank in Abuja, as its first witness, who revealed that he had been working with the bank for three years and handled compliance requests from law enforcement agencies.

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Ajoma testified that on December 2, 2025, Sterling Bank received a request from the EFCC seeking information about loan facilities granted to Rayham Hotel Limited, and subsequently provided the requested documents, including the account opening package and loan account statements.

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The witness explained that the loan facility granted to Rayham Hotel Limited was backed by a cash collateral from Metropolitan Autotech, and that both companies maintain separate accounts with Sterling Bank, with Hassan Aliyu as the signatory to the Metropolitan Autotech account.

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Under cross-examination, Ajoma admitted that he was not privy to the specific details or purposes of inflows into the accounts, as he was not the relationship manager for either Rayham Hotel Limited or Metropolitan Autotech accounts.

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Ajoma also confirmed that Abubakar Malami's name did not appear on the loan application documents presented to the court, with the only name appearing on the loan application being Abdulaziz Malami, who signed as the Managing Director of Rayham Hotel Limited.

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The witness further stated that none of the transactions reviewed by the bank originated from any government account, the Federal Ministry of Justice, or from Malami personally, and that no suspicious transactions linked to the accounts under review were identified.

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Ajoma also noted that no transactions were found to be in breach of regulations issued by the Central Bank of Nigeria, based on the documents available to the court.

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After Ajoma concluded his testimony, the defendants' counsel moved for bail for Malami, his wife, and their son, with the EFCC stating that it did not oppose the request, but urged the judge to impose conditions that would guarantee the defendants' availability for trial.

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Justice Abdulmalik subsequently granted bail to the three defendants in the sum of N200m each, with two sureties in like sum, and ordered that one of the sureties must deposit title documents of landed property located in either Maitama or Asokoro districts of Abuja.

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The court also directed the defendants to deposit their international passports with the court registrar, and ordered that they be remanded in the custody of the Nigerian Correctional Service pending the perfection of the bail conditions.

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The judge then adjourned the case until March 16 for the continuation of the trial.