Abubakar Malami (SAN), the immediate past Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, clarified the reasons behind the arrest of whistleblower Mahdi Shehu. Read full article
Contrary to Shehu's claim that he was arrested for calling on President Bola Tinubu to probe former President Muhammadu Buhari and some officials, Malami's firm, in a statement signed by A.A. Sherif, alleged that Shehu was apprehended in Kaduna for attempting to extort $500,000 from his wife, Aisha.
The statement further accused Shehu of engaging in extortion, criminal intimidation, and attempting to deceive a syndicate through the use of GSM numbers and email addresses to acquire money through deceptive means.
Statement reads;
Our attention has been drawn to the above press statement made on February 7, 2024, as well as that of January 2024; and we, as solicitors to Mr Abubakar Malami, SAN, and his family, noted with grave concern that the press statement is not correct, misleading, malicious and a gross misrepresentation of the facts leading to the arrest.
Therefore, we write to set the record straight for the benefit of the public. Without prejudice to the police investigation that is ongoing, the facts relate to the complaint/petition which we wrote to the Inspector-General of Police on allegations bothering on extortion, criminal intimidation and an attempt to obtain money by pretence against a syndicate using GSM numbers and email addresses