Court adjourns arraignment of KANSIEC chairman, two others over ‘N1.02bn money laundering’ charges

A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja has adjourned the arraignment of the Chairman of Kano State Independent Electoral Commission (KANSIEC), Professor Sani Lawan Malumfashi, the Secretary of the Commission, Mr. Anas Muhammed Mustapha, and Mr. Ado Garba, a Deputy Director, Account Department, over an alleged more than One Billion Naira money laundering case.

SolaceBase reports that the suit was filed by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC).

At the court sitting on Monday, the prosecution counsel, Bar. Enosa Omoghibo, an Assistant Director in the Legal Department of the ICPC, informed the court that the matter is slated for arraignment but the defendants were not in Court.

However, the defendant’s counsel, M A. Magaji SAN, who appeared with A. M. Saleh, Afeez Mahmud, Faheez Mahmud, Kemisola Babatunde and Dino Melaye for the  Defendants drew the attention of the court to the fact that there was no service on the defendants and further submitted that service is very critical and fundamental to the jurisdiction of the Court.

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After the court noted the observation, the presiding judge, Justice Joyce Abdulmalik, adjourned the matter to 24th November,2025, for arraignment.

Recalls that the three officials are facing a 10-count charge filed by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) over the alleged laundering of ₦1.02 billion during the 2024 local government election exercise.

According to the ICPC, the trio had conspired sometime between November and December 2024 to commit fraud through a large-scale illegal cash transaction without regard for financial regulations and extant legislations prohibiting corruption and money laundering.

In the charge filed before the court, ICPC stated that its investigation revealed that KANSIEC, under Professor Malumfashi in November 2024 alone, transferred a total sum of N1,020,000,000.00(One Billion and Twenty Million Naira) directly from its Unity Bank account to that of SLM Agro Global Farm, which has no contractual relationship with KANSIEC.

ICPC further revealed that while the defendants in the statements they volunteered argued that the transfers made to SLM AgroGlobal were made with the intention to raise cash needed to pay the adhoc-staff that participated in the local government election in the state, and that the firm returned all such transfers to KANSIEC in cash.

Investigation however revealed otherwise as a letter from the defendant addressed to the Manager, Unity Bank, Zoo Road, Kano detailed where in they requested transfer payment of the sum of N59, 400, 000.00 (Fifty-Nine Million, Four Hundred Thousand Naira), attached with a cheque of same amount and a list of 468 Electoral Officers and 42 Assistance Electoral Officers’ bank details for payment through the banking system.

This request, according to ICPC, was honoured by the bank, and the beneficiaries, one and all, got their payments.

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‘’Their claim that the banking system or transfers would have been too slow to accommodate their requests in the case of ad hoc staff was found to be a mere conjecture, a screen to hide corruption and a lame excuse to justify the offence of money laundering,” ICPC said.

The Commission added that its investigation further revealed that though the budget for the 2024 Election presented to the investigating officers (wrongly headed “Operation Budget 2025 Elections”) has the amount of N20, 000, 000.00 (Twenty Million Naira) budgeted for the Team to conduct screening/verification of the candidates across 484 Wards and 44 Local Governments of Kano State, However, all the candidates were screened/verified in the Commission’s office in Kano.

“The Team did not travel out of Kano and the candidates made it to KANSIEC office in Kano at their own expense, yet the 3rd Defendant in his statement to the ICPC investigating officers stated that the entire budget of N20 million was given in cash to the KANSIEC Members who constitute the screening/verification team.”