Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar
Malami, yesterday directed the Independent Corrupt Practices and other
related offences Commission to hand over trial of Katsina officials
accused of stealing N5.7 billion SURE-P funds to the state government
for trial.
The ICPC had accused three former officials of the state government of
committing the alleged offence during the administration of former
Governor Ibrahim Shema.
The accused persons are the former Special Adviser to the Governor on
SURE-P, Nasiru Ingawa; Director of Finance and Account of the SURE-P
Department, Abdulaziz Shinkafi; and a chief store officer in the state
civil service, Bello Bindawa.
The federal anti-graft agency had arraigned them before a Katsina
State High Court on a 17-count charge bordering on misappropriation of
over N5.7 billion SURE-P funds, stating that the offences contravened
different sections of the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences
Act 2000.
The matter dragged on in court for almost a year over a disagreement
between the ICPC and Katsina state government on who should prosecute
the case.
When the matter was called yesterday, the state’s Solicitor-General,
Abdulsalam Sabiu, told the court that the office of the AGF had
directed the release of necessary legal documents from the office of
the ICPC to the office for onward transmission to the Katsina state
government.
He said the ICPC complied with the directive and released all the
documents to the office of the AGF on October 18.
Sabiu, however, added that at the point of releasing the documents to
the state government, Malami travelled out of the country on an
official assignment.
Based on this development, Sabiu asked for an adjournment.
The trial judge, Maikaita Bako, adjourned the case to November 27 for
continuation of trial.
