Former finance minister and director of Goodluck's campaign Nenadi Usman arrested by EFCC

FORMER finance minister Senator Nenadi Usman has been taken into custody by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for allegedly receiving N2.5bn (£8.6m) from the former national security adviser Col Sambo Dasuki.

 

Senator Usman, who was the finance minister towards the tail end of the Obasanjo government and later got elected as the senator representing Kaduna South, was President Goodluck Jonathan's campaign director during the last elections. In her role, she was responsible for collecting money for the campaigns.

 

According to the EFCC, Senator Usman was alleged to have received N2.5bn of a sum of N4bn (£13.8m) taken out of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on the orders of Col Dasuki, in the heat of the 2015 elections. Senator Usman was the director of finance of the Peoples Democratic Party Presidential Campaign and was said to have access to huge amounts of cash, some of which the EFCC said came from the CBN.

 

Also arrested by the EFCC along with her was the former permanent secretary in the ministry of labour, Clement Iloh, for obtaining a questionable N316m from public accounts. Yesterday, they were quizzed over what an EFCC top source described as serial acts of corruption.

 

Senator Usman was said to have received the CBN cash paid into various individual and company accounts. Mr Illoh, on his part, was arrested by the EFCC after N316m was traced to his Zenith Bank account.

 

During the investigation, the EFCC is said to have discovered that N14.1m was paid to Clement & Bob Associates, a company in which Mr Illoh is the sole signatory. It was further discovered that the sum of N49m and N13m were also paid into Clement & Bob Associates account from the now defunct Subsidy Reinvestment Programme.