Buhari Terminates Abubakar Malami Over $2.15bn Commission

President Muhammadu Buhari has terminated the debt recovery contract awarded to Trobell International Limited by Abubakar Malami, the attorney-general of the federation, because of the “incredible” commission to be paid, TheCable reports.

Trobell was engaged by Malami to recover the estimated $43 billion unpaid arrears to Nigeria from the production sharing contracts (PSCs) with multinational companies — and the commission was set at five percent.

Effectively, Trobell would be pocketing $2.15 billion — or N774 billion — as commission.

By comparison, the 2019 budget of Lagos, the most economically viable state in the country, is N874 billion.

But in a letter to Malami dated October 16, 2019, Abba Kyari, the chief of staff to the president, said Buhari has directed that the minister should immediately “comply with Mr. President’s directives of March 4, 2019, and terminate the Recovery Contract which the Ministry of Justice had signed with Trobell International Limited regarding the purported recovery of $43.747b from the PSCs pursuant to the consent judgement of the Supreme Court of April 5, 2018.”

According to presidency sources, Buhari was alarmed at the “staggering commission” to Trobell for simply writing letters of demand to the oil companies after the supreme court-ordered settlement of the dispute.

Buhari was said to have questioned how Malami arrived at the five percent commission for a recovery that the federal government can do by itself without engaging any company.