Kaduna vs El-Rufai: Ex-Chief of Staff makes confessions on forex conversion

Muhammad Bashir Sa’idu, the former Chief of Staff to the immediate past governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El Rufai, has implicated his former principal in a confessional statement related to an ongoing money laundering case against him.

The Star recalls that the Chief Magistrate Court in the Rigasa area of Kaduna State remanded Sa’idu at the Kaduna Correctional Centre following his arrest and arraignment by security agencies on December 31, 2024.

The charges against the former Chief of Staff allege that he sold $45 million in hard currency belonging to the Kaduna State Government – equivalent to N18,450,000,000 – at the rate of N410 per dollar.

This was instead of the parallel market rate of N498 per dollar, with criminal intent, resulting in a N3,960,000,000 loss to the government.

According to the prosecution, the offence allegedly occurred in 2022, when Sa’idu served as the Commissioner of Finance in the El-Rufai’s administration.

The prosecution further alleged that the N3,960,000,000 discrepancy was laundered by Sa’idu, in violation of Section 18 of the Money Laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022.

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A security source, speaking anonymously, disclosed that Sa’idu implicated El-Rufai in his confessional statement to the police.

Sa’idu was quoted as saying: “The procedure for currency conversion was not my decision but that of His Excellency, the then Governor of Kaduna State, Malam Nasir El-Rufai.

“Whenever the need arose to convert funds to naira, the governor would direct how much to convert. Bids from various buyers were obtained, and in most cases, the bids I forwarded to His Excellency for approval were higher than those available in the parallel market.”

Section 18(3) of the Money Laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022 stipulates that anyone who violates subsection (2) is liable, upon conviction, to imprisonment for a term of not less than four years and not more than 14 years, a fine of no less than five times the value of the proceeds of the crime, or both.

The Star