Minna high court remands former Niger Gov, Aliyu, Nasko in prison till May

Minna high court remands former Niger Gov, Aliyu, Nasko in prison till May

A Niger State High Court in Minna on Tuesday ordered the prison remand of a former governor of the state, Babangida Aliyu, who was charged with N4.6bn fraud.

The court ordered that Aliyu should be remanded at the Minna Medium Prisons pending the ruling on his bail application fixed for May 3, 2017.

Also remanded in prison by the court was Umar Nasko, who served as Chief of Staff and Commissioner for Environment under Aliyu’s administration between 2007 and 2015.

The presiding judge, Justice Aliyu Mayaki, said, “The case is to be opened on June 12, 2017 and to be held day-by-day till 16th June and the ruling on bail is to be delivered on 3rd May, 2017. They are to be remanded in the Medium Security Prisons in Minna.”

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission arraigned Aliyu and Nasko on six counts but they pleaded not guilty to the charges.

They were accused of misappropriating N4,568,680,600 belonging to Niger State.

According to the EFCC, Aliyu, who is popularly known as the chief servant, allegedly diverted N520m from the Niger State Government Security account domiciled in Zenith Bank between January and March 2011.

Within the same period, the former governor also allegedly diverted a separate N1.7bn from the same account.

The commission said in 2015 Aliyu and Nasko allegedly diverted about N1.09bn, which was 16 per cent shares of Niger State in the North-South Power Company Limited.

The alleged crimes are believed to be in contravention of sections 97 and 312 of the Penal Code.

One of the charges read in part,  “That you, Dr. Muazu Babangida Aliyu, being the governor (also known as chief servant) of Niger State from 2007 to 2015;  Umar Mohammed Nasko, being the former Commissioner for Environment/Chief of Staff to Dr. Muazu Babangida Aliyu, sometime between April 7, 2015 and December 7, 2015 in Minna within the jurisdiction of this honourable court while being entrusted with dominion over money belonging to Niger State Government dishonestly converted to your own use the sum of N1,090, 000,000,  which formed part of the proceeds of the sale of 16 per cent shares of Niger State in the North-South Power Company Limited and thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 312 of the Penal Code.”