The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) has called a former Special Advisor to the most recent governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai.
Mr. Jimi Lawal was invited due to a purported N11 billion phoney Light Rail Project.
It was discovered that although the putative light rail project was supposedly fully funded, there was no contract file for its execution.
Lawal was supposed to testify before the ICPC investigative team yesterday, but he did not show up and was not represented.
It was discovered that the anti-graft agency had asked the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) and the Department of State Service (DSS) to put the former adviser on a watch list at land crossings, seaports, and airports.
Lawal is being investigated in relation to “loans (foreign and domestic) obtained without following due process,” according to the commission.
The commission announced that it had found receipts totalling N144 million from four private entities in his account, which was held by a large bank.
A copy of the ICPC’s letter to DSS and NIS reads: “The above mentioned person (Lawal Shakiru Olujimi Adebisi), who hails from Ogun State and speaks Yoruba and English fluently, is being investigated for the offence of criminal conspiracy.
“Credible information at the commission’s disposal suggests that the suspect, who is under investigation, is most likely to flee the country to evade being prosecuted.
“You are therefore, kindly requested to place him on the watch-list and arrest him if seen in any of the airports, seaports or land border and inform this commission accordingly.”
The ICPC has also invited twenty senior officials and the managing director of a corporation over loans totalling $350 million intended for the renovation of vital infrastructure and schools.
Interrogation of the impacted invitees will take place from August 13 to August 16.
These are Mariam Sani Dangaji, the project coordinator for the Kaduna State Transportation Program; Nicolas Hassan Samuel, the project accountant for the same program; Sani Nalado, the project accountant for AGILE; Abdulhadi Muhammed Suleiman, the project accountant for ROOSC; Yahaya Aminu, the project coordinator for Agro Processing Productivity Enhancement and livelihood Improvement Support (APPEALS); and Nasiru Dahiru, the project accountant for APPEALS.
Additional individuals include Abbas Sani, the project coordinator for the Kaduna State Special Agro Processing Zones (SAPZ), and D. Mark Anthony Chunbi, the SAPZ accountant; Shittu Salisu, the project coordinator for the Kaduna State Livestock Productivity and Resilience Support Project (LPRES), and F. Ahmed Suleiman, the LPRES accountant; Zubairu Abubakar, the project coordinator for the Kaduna State Rural Access and Agricultural Marketing Project (RAAMP), and Mercy Emanuel Toro, the project accountant for the RAAMP.
Those on the list include: Project Coordinator, Kaduna State Sustainable Urban and Rural Water Supply, Sanitation and hygiene Project (SURWASH), Esau Ambinjah and SURWASH Project Accountant, Tukur Umar Ibrahim; Project Coordinator, Kaduna State Immunisation Plus and Malaria Progress by Accelerating Coverage and Promoting Service (IMPACT), Usman Garba and IMPACT Project Accountant, Idriss Haliru Makama; Project Coordinator, Kaduna State Accelerating Nutrition Results in Nigeria(ANRiN), Dr. Zainab Kwaru Muhammad and ANRiN Accountant, Dr. Habibu Muhammad Lawan; the Project Coordinator, Kaduna State Agro-climatic Resilience in Semi-Arid Landscape (ACReSAL) Jibrin Dahiru Rufai and ACReSAL Accountant, Ibrahim Tukur Umar; and the Managing Director-CHAMBERLAYNE LIMITED.
An ICPC source said: “We received many petitions on the administration of el-Rufai. All the petitions were fully endorsed to prove that they were not frivolous. Some of the petitions were even sent through law firms.
“We have conducted preliminary investigation and it has become necessary to interrogate these people base on our findings.”
The most recent has been characterised as a fresh turn in the ongoing investigation of El-Rufai’s administration in Kaduna State.
According to reports made in June, the ad-Hoc Committee of the Kaduna House of Assembly discovered that from May 29, 2015 to May 29, 2023, about N423,115,028,072.88 was embezzled from the state government’s finances.
Additionally, it is said to have detected a total $1.4 million withdrawal from the Kaduna State Economic Transformation Account. The committee asked for a N19, 239,511,099.76 reimbursement from eight individuals and businesses.
Additionally, 15 contractors were instructed to return N36, 351,126,811.65, which they claimed to be “monies paid for work either not done, overpayment, or diversion.”
The panel stated that although though El-Rufai’s administration issued contracts worth N510,407,166,975.39 between 1999 and 2023, it only gave contractors N198,921,880,169.04.
El-Rufai, however, refuted every accusation. Furthermore, he claimed that he was not granted a fair hearing by the House of Assembly.
And has gone to court to challenge the report.
