In clear violation of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control directive on social distancing as a result of the Coronavirus outbreak in the country, guests at the wedding ceremony of Abdul Aziz Malami, son of Nigeria’s Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN), have been seen in a video of the lavish ceremony dancing and communicating close to one another without wearing face masks while spraying wads of United States dollars and naira notes on the newly married couple.
Part of the NCDC guidelines forbids social events like weddings where there are more than 20 persons in attendance.
The video of the ceremony published by SaharaReporters on Friday clearly showed more than the stipulated number of persons at that ceremony.
Also, the open spraying of wads of cash at the event violates the Central Bank of Nigeria’s rule, which forbids anyone from abusing the naira by spraying and stepping on them in public.
Despite breaking the law in these regards even though he is Nigeria’s chief law officer, findings by SaharaReporters revealed that Malami had already made arrangements for a sizeable number of private jets to fly dignitaries from Abuja, Kano and Lagos to Kebbi State on Saturday for the second leg of the wedding where more display of opulence and gross disregard for the NCDC guidelines are expected to be showcased.
It was also reliably gathered that Malami had already bought a N300m mansion in Abuja as a gift to the young couple to help them start their marital journey on a glorious footing.
Abdul Aziz, who graduated from a university in Cyprus in 2018, is known among his circle to lead a flamboyant lifestyle purportedly fuelled by public funds at the disposal of his father, who remains one of the most powerful and influential figures in the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari.
Despite maintaining a public posture of sainthood, Malami, events of recent times had shown, is not very far away from scandals.
Recently, the AGF took over the case involving Bala Hamisu Wadume, a notorious kidnapper, after soldiers killed three policemen taking the suspect to the police headquarters in Jalingo, Taraba State, after his arrest.
Malami later announced that the soldiers would be tried by a military court martial and not the convention court, sparking public outrage.
In a letter on June 15 to the Attorney-General, Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Femi Falana, demanded the immediate arrest and prosecution of the 10 army personnel involved in the killing of the three policemen and two civilians in that incident in August 2019.
Falana said that without the arrest and prosecution of the soldiers responsible for the deaths of the policemen and civilians, justice cannot be served on the matter.
Continuing in his tradition of frustrating high profile cases especially ones that have to do with corruption and rights abuses, Malami also recently ordered security agencies to cover up an ongoing multi-billion naira fraud in Nigeria Incentive-based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending.
Also, he was behind the reinstatement of a former Chairman of the Pension Reform Task Team, Abdulrasheed Maina, into the civil service after his dismissal in 2013 for a N2bn theft of pension funds.
Maina is currently being prosecuted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission after being arrested upon sneaking back into Nigeria.
Another case taken over by Malami and which never saw the light of day was the N25bn fraud trial of Danjuma Goje, former governor of Gombe State.
The case was stalled when in an emergency hearing before Justice Babatunde Quadiri, EFCC counsel, Mr Wahab Shittu, told the court that the agency was withdrawing from the case and handing it over to the office of the Attorney-General for continuation.
The AGF however, stated that having thoroughly reviewed the matter, found no prima facie case while adding that it was weak.
Malami withdrew the charges against Goje from the court in exercise of his constitutional power, allowing him to now walk as a free man.
Indeed, the list of cases taken over by Malami and frustrated in recent times is long and worrisome.
This content was originally published here.