Buhari’s NPC nominee ‘remanded in prison’ over N182m fraud

Saadu Alanamu, a nominee as commissioner of the National Population Commission (NPC), has been remanded in prison over an alleged N182m fraud.

Alanamu was among the 23 nominees forwarded to the senate for confirmation by President Muhammadu Buhari.

In August 2017, Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo, who was acting president at the time, named Alanamu as one of the nominees to the board of the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related Offences Commission (ICPC)

But he was later dropped after reports revealed that he was being investigated for corruption.

Alanamu, a former chairman of the governing council of Kwara State Polytechnic, was arraigned alongside Salman Sulaiman, chief executive of Namylas Nigeria Limited, for allegedly receiving a bribe of N5m from a contractor.

The accused persons pleaded not guilty to the charges and they were granted bail in the sum of N2m.

PUNCH reports that a Kwara high court sitting in Ilorin, the state capital, on Monday revoked Alanamu’s bail and remanded him prison following allegations by the Mahmud AbdulGafar, the presiding judge, that some persons had offered him a bribe to dismiss the case.

In a statement on Wednesday, Rasheedat Okoduwa, ICPC spokesperson, said in the course of the trial, the defence counsel alleged that the accused was “forced, harassed, intimidated and coerced” into making his statement to the commission’s investigators and, therefore, it should not be admitted in evidence.

AbdulGafar consequently ordered a trial-within-trial, which commenced the same day, noting that it was for the court to determine whether the statement was made voluntarily or not.

While delivering his ruling on the trial-within-trial, the judge overruled the objection of the defence and admitted the first defendant’s confessional statement in evidence, consequently revoking the bail of Alanamu for abuse of bail conditions.