N23bn Diezani bribe: EFCC charges Sokoto ex-deputy gov

Shagari, who is a nephew of former President Shehu Shagari, allegedly took part in the sharing of N23bn ($115m) disbursed by a former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke, during the run-up to the 2015 presidential election. The money, the EFCC said, was meant to manipulate the outcome of the poll in favour of the Peoples Democratic Party as the money found its way into the bank accounts of scores of electoral officers who have since been suspended by the Independent National Electoral Commission. The commission alleged in the charge sheet that Shagari, who served as Minister of Water Resources under former President Olusegun Obasanjo, allegedly received N500m from the Diezani fund. One of the charges read that “You Mukhtar Shehu Shagari, Ibrahim Gidado and Ibrahim Milgoma, sometime in March 2015, within the justification of this honourable court did conspire among yourselves to receive cash payment of the sum of N500,000,000 (Five Hundred Million Naira Only) from one Abdulrahaman Ibrahim without transacting through a financial institution and thereby committed an offence contrary to section 18(a) of the Money Laundering Prohibition Act, 2011 as amended and punishable under section 16(2) of the same Act.”]]>