How Buhari’s Candidate Under Prosecution For N15Billion Fraud, Abdullahi Adamu, Emerged APC National Chairman
Abdullahi Adamu, a former governor of Nasarawa State who was President Muhammadu Buhari’s preferred national chairmanship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), is now the new party chairman.
Adamu emerged as a consensus candidate alongside other members of the incoming National Working Committee and Zonal Leaders of the party at the convention of the party, which held on Saturday at the Eagles Square, Abuja.
This is despite the allegations of corruption hanging around his neck.
Sources had earlier informed SaharaReporters that Adamu never attended the Nigerian Law School as against claims that he did.
This is even as some of the sources dared Adamu to mention his ex-classmates at the Nigerian prestigious school and “stop embarrassing the legal profession.”
Adamu in 1987 was said to have enrolled in the part-time degree programme of the University of Jos, obtaining an LLB (Hons) in 1992. He was said to have subsequently enrolled in the Nigerian Law School, Lagos and was called to the Bar as a solicitor and Advocate of the Supreme Court of Nigeria in December 1993.
Speaking with SaharaReporters, one of the sources said, “Abdullahi Adamu never attended the Nigerian Law School which is a prerequisite to practising in the legal profession. One of the 1993 graduating set of the law school in Lagos confirmed never to have met the former governor throughout the one-year programme.
“The use of an affidavit for loss of certificate to replace proper documentation is fast becoming a norm amongst Nigerian politicians.”
“We challenge the former governor to mention at least three of his classmates while in the Law school to clear the air and stop embarrassing the prestigious members of the Nigerian Bar Association,” another top source said.
Earlier, SaharaReporters reported how Adamu, who served as governor of Nasarawa between 1999 and 2007 was in March 2010 arraigned by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) at the Federal High Court in Lafia.
The EFCC had instituted N15 billion fraud allegations against Adamu and others.
The EFCC said Adamu was arrested over the fraudulent award of contracts mostly on capital projects during his eight-year rule as governor of Nasarawa.
The former governor and his co-accused, however, filed a motion countering the charges on the grounds that since the funds alleged to be embezzled belonged to the state, the EFCC was out of line in its investigation. The defendants also pleaded not guilty to the charges.
But the then presiding judge, David Okorowa, ruled that Adamu would stand trial as he had a case to answer.
In 2013, the senator and other defendants filed a suit at the Court of Appeal, challenging the decision of the lower court.
In 2018, Adamu claimed the EFCC had dusted his file on alleged case of corruption since 2016.
In the same year, his son was arrested alongside one Felix Onyeabo by the anti-graft agency for allegedly getting a contract with forged documents.
Justice J. K. Daggard of the Federal High Court sitting in Kano on February 7, 2018, granted Nuraini Adamu and Onyeabo bail in the sum of N8 million each and two sureties in like sum.
The defendants were arraigned on January 17, 2018, on 5 counts of money laundering.
Meanwhile, Nigerians on social media have reacted to the withdrawal of some of the candidates from the race and subsequent emergence of the ‘preferred’ candidates at the APC National Convention.
A tweep @mosky101 wrote, “People traveled to Abuja for nothing only to hear the names of preferred candidates #APCNationalConvention what a shame.”
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SaharaReporters, New York
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