13th August 2024

A former Special Adviser to immediate past Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai has been summoned by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC).

Mr. Jimi Lawal was invited over an alleged phoney Light Rail Project valued at N11 billion.

It was learnt that there was no contract file for the implementation of the purported light rail but it was allegedly paid for in full.

Although Lawal was scheduled to appear before ICPC team of investigators yesterday, he failed to show up and he was not represented.

The anti-graft agency, it was learnt, requested the Department of State Service (DSS) and the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) to place the former adviser on watch-list at airports, seaports and land borders.

According to the commission, Lawal is being probed in connection with “loans (foreign and domestic) obtained without following due process.”

The commission said it had discovered that his account domiciled with a major bank revealed a total sum of N144 million receipts from four private companies.

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.”

Twenty top officials and the Managing Director of a company have also been invited by ICPC over $350 million loans meant for rehabilitation of schools and strategic infrastructure.

The affected invitees will undergo interrogation from August 13 to August 16.

 They are the Project Coordinator, Kaduna State Transportation Programme, Mariam Sani Dangaji; Project Accountant, Kaduna State Transportation Programme, Nicolas Hassan Samuel; Project Accountant AGILE, Sani Nalado; Project Coordinator, Kaduna State Reaching Out-of-School Children (ROOSC); Project Accountant, ROOSC Abdulhadi Muhammed Suleiman; Project Coordinator, Agro Processing Productivity Enhancement and livelihood Improvement Support (APPEALS), Yahaya Aminu and Project Accountant APPEALS, Nasiru Dahiru.

Others are Project Coordinator, Kaduna State Special Agro Processing Zones (SAPZ), Abbas Sani and SAPZ Accountant, D. Mark Anthony Chunbi; Project Coordinator Kaduna State Livestock Productivity and Resilience Support Project (LPRES), Shittu Salisu and LPRES Accountant, F. Ahmed Suleiman; Project Coordinator, Kaduna State Rural Access and Agricultural marketing Project (RAAMP), Zubairu Abubakar and RAAMP Project Accountant, Mercy Emanuel Toro.

 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 latest has been described as a new twist in the ongoing probe of the administration of El-Rufai in Kaduna State.

In June, the ad-Hoc Committee of the Kaduna House of Assembly allegedly uncovered that about N423,115,028,072.88 was siphoned from the coffers of the state government from May 29, 2015 to May 29, 2023.

It also allegedly spotted cumulative withdrawal of $1.4 million from the Kaduna State Economic Transformation Account.

The committee requested eight people and companies to refund N19, 239,511,099.76

It also directed 15 contractors to refund N36, 351,126,811.65 as “being monies paid for work either not done, overpayment or diversion”.

The panel said that although, the value of contracts awarded from 1999 to 2023 by El-Rufai’s administration was N510,407,166,975.39, it only paid N198,921,880,169.04 to contractors.