Three former appointees of Nasiru El-Rufai, the former governor of Kaduna State, will be charged by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offenses Commission today (Friday) in a new N64 million money laundering case.
Among the former appointees are Yusuf Inuwa, the former Finance Commissioner, Umar Waziri, the former Accountant General of Kaduna State, and Lawal Adebisi, the former Senior Special Adviser/Counsellor to the Governor.
The three former public officials are set to be arraigned before the Federal High Court in Kaduna, according to a statement released Thursday by ICPC spokesman Demola Bakare.
He stated that they would be charged with Solar Life Nigeria Limited, a company whose bank account the money was purportedly transferred to.
The spokesman said, “In the suit filed at the Federal High Court, Kaduna Judicial division, the ICPC is accusing Mr. Lawal of conniving with the two other accused persons to divert the total sum N64,800,562 in three tranches of N10,000,000,00, N47,840,000.00 and N7,320,562.00 to the bank account of Solar Life Nigeria limited where Mr. Lawal is believed to the sole signatory.
“The four accused persons are expected to appear in court on Friday, 17th of January, 2025 to take their plea.”
Alhaji Muhammad Bashir Sa’idu, El-Rufai’s former chief of staff and commissioner of finance in Kaduna State, was also charged with two counts of money laundering by the ICPC last week.In the allegations brought before the Federal High Court in Kaduna, the anti-graft agency accused Sa’idu of money laundering involving N155 million.
He allegedly made an illegal payment to Ibrahim Muktar, a public official in the state’s Ministry of Finance, according to the ICPC.
The former governor strongly refuted the N423 billion embezzlement charge made against the El-Rufai government by the Kaduna State House of Assembly last year.