Sh*ckwaves In Kaduna: Ex-El-Rufai Chief Of Staff Links Former Governor To Money Laundering Scandal

Muhammad Bashir Sa’idu, the former Chief of Staff to Nasir El-Rufai, has implicated the former Governor of Kaduna State in an ongoing money laundering case involving the alleged undervalued sale of state funds in foreign currency.....KINDLY READ THE FULL STORY HERE▶

Sa’idu, who previously served as the Commissioner of Finance during El-Rufai’s administration, was arraigned by security agencies on December 31, 2024, and has been remanded at the Kaduna Correctional Centre.

The charges against Sa’idu allege that he sold $45 million of Kaduna State Government funds at an undervalued rate of ₦410 per dollar, significantly lower than the parallel market rate of ₦498 per dollar at the time. This transaction reportedly caused the state to lose ₦3.96 billion.

Allegations and Confessional Statement

A security source, speaking anonymously to select journalists in Kaduna, revealed that Sa’idu implicated El-Rufai in his confessional statement to the police.

The accused reportedly stated, “The currency conversion process was not the decision of the Commissioner of Finance but that of His Excellency, the then Governor of Kaduna State, Malam Nasir El-Rufai. Whenever there was a need to convert funds into naira, the Governor would direct how much to convert. Bids from various buyers were obtained, and in most cases, the bids I forwarded to His Excellency for approval were higher than those available in the parallel market.”

Section 18(3) of the Money Laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022, prescribes severe penalties for violators, including a minimum of four years and a maximum of 14 years imprisonment, a fine of at least five times the value of the proceeds of the crime, or both.