Why Buhari sacked NIRSAL boss Abdulhameed

Aliyu Abdulhameed, the managing director of the Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL), has been removed from office on the orders of President Muhammadu Buhari.
Abdulhameed who was appointed managing director of the agency in 2015 has been enmeshed in numerous allegations of high profile fraudulent deals and money laundering for which his son, Imran Aliyu Abdulhameed was reportedly jailed by the United Arab Emirates government for money laundering, in case number 2018/4796.
In January this year, an allegation of how a multi-billion naira loan guaranteed by NIRSAL for three investor companies for the cultivation to harvest of 20,000 hectares of dry season wheat in Kano and Jigawa were allegedly diverted by the companies in connivance with NIRSAL officials surfaced.
Abdulhameed had denied the allegation saying they were mastermind by faceless individuals to tarnish his image and that of the organisation. However, following the report, operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) invited him and other officials of NIRSAL for questioning over their roles in the wheat project scandal.
Apart from the EFCC, the ICPC and the Police had also launched their investigations into the matter.
Insider sources who confirmed the development said following a directive from the Presidency, the MD was removed from office on Thursday afternoon and escorted out of premises shortly after he briefly addressed staff.
Although he was yet to officially handover, a source who wouldn’t want to be named said the Board of NIRSAL was billed to name an acting MD .
Both the MD, Abdulhameed and NIRSAL’s spokesperson, Anne Ihugba, did not respond to calls and text messages sent to them to respond to the development
Allegations of fraud involving huge amounts of money have dotted Abdulhameed’s track since he was appointed to office in 2015.
Sources who witnessed his dismissal on Thursday said “his exotic official vehicles were all withdrawn from him. He left the office in a small Ford vehicle and was grandstanding that he would soon be back.
In June, SaharaReporters had reported that Abdulhameed siphoned close to N1 billion using the private bank account of the agency’s Head of Finance, Idris Issa Aweda, as a conduit.
Aweda allegedly used three personal bank accounts: FCMB (4986133010), GTB (0245155058), and Stanbic IBTC (0021195810) to receive proceeds of fraud on behalf of Abdulhameed.
Although NIRSAL is not a security agency, Abdulhameed fraudulently ordered payment of money for “advance for security challenge in the North-East on the farms fields”, “security challenge in the North-Central on the farms fields”, “advance for external security issue armoured car” and “advance for security challenge in the South-East on the farms fields”.
He also summarily “dismissed” the organisation’s Acting Head of Internal Audit, Mr Olalekan Olusanya, in bid to conceal a deep-rooted multi-billion-naira fraud.
Abdulhameed also dismissed another staff member of the organisation, Olusola Omole, in a bid to conceal the corruption taking place under his watch.
Omole was the head of a technical unit with responsibility across the 36 states of the federation before he was removed.
NIRSAL is a $500 million non-bank financial institution, a creation of the Central Bank of Nigeria mandated to manage agribusiness-related credit risks in Nigeria.
Mr Abdulhameed’s corrupt practices was attributed as the reason why the Central Bank of Nigeria suspended funding to NIRSAL last year.
The CBN has been guaranteeing all borrowings disbursed by NIRSAL, which is a parastatal of the government’s banker.
It was further gathered that Mr Abdulhameed has been recommended for prosecution following his dismissal from office, although he has not yet been apprehended by security operatives.
When his son, Imran was arrested by the cops in Dubai, he was caught driving a Lamborghini Urus car, worth $400,000.00 (Four Hundred Thousand Dollars) and was wearing a designer wristwatch, Audemars Piguet, one of the world’s most expensive wristwatches valued at tens of thousands of dollars, according to reports monitored on Saharareporters.
The online newspaper claimed to have obtained the statement of account which details how Imran laundered money on several occasions as well as a copy of the bail bond of the public prosecution department, the government of Ras AI Khaimah with which Imran’s release was eventually secured.