Operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS) have rearrested Abubakar Malami, the former Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice. The DSS arrest of former Attorney-General Abubakar Malami took place on Monday, 19 January 2026, when operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS) detained him immediately after his release from the Kuje Correctional Centre in Abuja, shortly after he had been granted and perfected bail in his ongoing money-laundering case.
Video footage circulating online shows Malami being escorted into a DSS-marked vehicle shortly after leaving the prison, at one point asking the operatives to present their official identity cards before entering the vehicle.
Malami, who had been remanded in Kuje for money-laundering charges brought by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) alongside his wife and son, was granted N500 million bail each by a Federal High Court earlier this month.
A security source told reporters that the DSS’s action follows multiple petitions alleging terrorism financing, an offence under Nigerian and international law, and that the agency is now investigating those allegations. The source noted that terrorism financing is within the DSS’s statutory mandate and that the security service is carrying out its duties in line with inter-agency cooperation protocols used in complex investigations.
The EFCC initially charged Malami, his son and his wife with a 16-count indictment alleging they conspired to launder proceeds of unlawful activity amounting to over ₦8.7 billion, and the court also ordered the interim forfeiture of 57 properties valued at about ₦213 billion believed to be linked to unlawful gains.
Neither the DSS nor Malami’s legal representatives have issued an official statement detailing the specific terrorism financing allegations or the next legal steps following the DSS arrest.
