The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL), Aliyu Abbati Abdulhameed, has been accused of defrauding NIRSAL in monies worth billions of naira.
Several sources have disclosed that Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Governor Godwin Emefiele, and Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice Abubakar Malami SAN, have been shielding Abdulhameed from possible arrest and prosecution with regards to corruption and money laundering.
“The boss keeps boasting about how his godfathers, especially Emefiele, won’t let anyone touch him. He continues to boast about his connections in high places,” a staff at NIRSAL tells Pulse.
NIRSAL was incorporated by the CBN in 2013 as a $500 million public-private initiative that would guarantee loans to farmers in a bid to bolster Nigeria’s agricultural value chain. NIRSAL has also been tasked with implementing the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration.
However, employees of NIRSAL and close associates of Abdulhameed say that he has allegedly mismanaged NIRSAL and has been using the establishment to divert funds into other companies run by family members and cronies.
Some of the companies allegedly used by Abdulhameed to divert funds that should have been given to farmers are Mainframe Agricultural Ltd and Forest Hill Agricultural Ltd.
An audit inquiry from Keystone Bank reads: “Kindly be informed that we are unable to proceed with your request to transfer N543,000,000 from Forest Hill to Mainframe, being the transfer of expenses incurred for the Wheat project on behalf of Mainframe to Forest Hill…
“Additionally, we noted payments to Woodfarm from Forest Hill (N120 million) being refunds to Mainstreet Capital for the NIRSAL fees and insurance premium for the Woodfarm Project. Why was this sum not returned when the refunds were received from NIRSAL and the insurance company?”
A management staff at NIRSAL confirmed that Emefiele and Malami, though aware of these financial improprieties, have been shielding Abdulhameed from prosecution.
Another management staff who pleaded anonymity for this story says “not only is there contract splitting in our company, most of the contracts awarded were rubbish and lack content or meaning.
“In fact some will pick power related issues and merely change the cover page; others will photocopy any document and submit; while some will just download anything from the internet. All of these documents were never usable.
“The MD boasts that he has regularised all these approvals through the Board Chairman/ Governor of the CBN. And that the CBN Governor is in his corner, hence nothing can touch him.
“He has been making overtures to the Police IPO handling the case through his friends and also his Mum. Remember also that the AGF, Malami has instructed the EFCC to step down any investigation on the NIRSAL MD, and instructed the police to take over. Of course we all know that the police won’t do anything because the daughter of the former police boss Sekina Adamu, was handed a plum job at NIRSAL.”
In one of the petitions against Abdulhameed addressed to President Buhari and the Chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC), the MD of NIRSAL allegedly wrote a letter referenced NIR/MD/GEN/TAPD/24/20/03 and titled “Request for Intervention on Unwarranted and Multiple Investigations of NIRSAL PLC By Law Enforcement Agencies.” The letter was dated 29th January, 2020 and addressed to the “Honourable Minister of Justice Malami.
A source says: “Based on this petition from NIRSAL, the Office of the Attorney-General, through the Department of Public Prosecution of the Federation, wrote to the Nigeria Police in a letter referenced DPPA/NIRSAL/110/20, and dated 4th of February, with the following details:
“After a careful study of the petition, we found that NIRSAL is being investigated by several agencies to wit: the Nigeria Police Force, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), the State Security Services (SSS) and the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) in respect of the same subject matter which is not only an unhealthy competition among the agencies of the same Federal Government of Nigeria but a sheer waste of government resources.”
In the same letter, the Office of the Attorney General also stated that: “In view of the foregoing, you are requested to conclude your own investigation on the matter and forward the outcome of your investigation to the Office of the Honourable Attorney-General of the Federation for legal advice and further necessary action.
“All other agencies investigating the matter are to stay further action to allow your office have total control of the investigation.”
One source says of the letter written to Malami: “Abdulhameed intentionally failed to mention that the investigation being carried out at the Nigeria Police is that of Imran Aliyu, the son of the MD who engaged in cybercrime.
“This investigation has nothing to do with NIRSAL as an organisation.
“Secondly, the case at ICPC is that of money laundering, and the investigation at DSS is that of Aliyu and his cronies for alleged involvement in sponsoring banditry and terrorism based on the narratives of financial transactions of over N1 billion in the name of security by the Head of Finance at NIRSAL in three different banks: GTB, STANBIC, and FCMB.”
In a previous story, Abdulhameed had told Pulse that the allegations periodically thrown at him are false.
He also denies making his son part of the NIRSAL business, in clear violation of conflict of interest ethic.
“They allege that I have put the entire capital of CBN in my pocket. Imagine that here I am, I go to CBN, and I do wizardry on them to approve so I can carry? Like CBN says ‘go inside, carry N72.5bn and go?’
“We do quarterly board meetings without fail. Every single thing I do in this place is controlled by the board. It’s their money, I’m just a servant. Everything we do at NIRSAL is for the public good. Over the span of its existence so far, NIRSAL has facilitated N100 billion into the agricultural sector. Honestly, Nigerians need to be proud of this baby and not try to bring it down with patently false allegations,” Abdulhameed said.
On allegation that he appointed the daughter of the nation’s former police chief in order to shield himself from prosecution, Abdulhameed responded:
“So if your sister, or your son or brother’s son qualifies for a job after an interview and I say come and do a job, he knows risk management, he knows finance, he knows agriculture, so it’s a crime to employ that person?” the boss of NIRSAL asked incredulously.
He added that, “without Emefiele, we wouldn’t be where we are as an organisation. If people attack me, they are attacking the agricultural policy of this government. People are angry that they are being stopped from importing rice. There are sponsors behind all of these media attacks.
“How can someone write that the MD of NIRSAL has put the entire capital in his pocket and run away?
“They say I have stolen N75 billion or N5.6 billion from a wheat project in Jigawa? They say my son drives a Lamborghini and is spraying millions of dollars on the streets of Dubai…come on!”
