ICPC To Arraign KANSIEC Chair, Others Over Alleged N1bn Money Laundering

The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) has expressed readiness to arraign the Chairman of Kano State Independent Electoral Commission (KANSIEC), Professor Sani Lawan Malumfashi, and two other officials over an alleged N1 billion money laundering.

A statement issued on Friday by the ICPC’s Director of Public Enlightenment and Education, Mr. Demola Bakare, disclosed that Prof Malumfashi, KANSIEC Secretary, Anas Muhammed Mustapha, and the Deputy Director of the Commission’s Accounts Department, Ado Garba, will appear before the Federal High Court in Abuja, on Monday, July 21, 2025.

The ICPC accused the trio of conspiring between November and December 2024 to launder funds through illegal cash transactions, “without regard for financial regulations and extant legislations prohibiting corruption and money laundering.”

According to the charge filed by the anti-graft agency, KANSIEC under Malumfashi’s leadership allegedly transferred N1.02 billion from the Commission’s Unity Bank account to SLM Agro Global Farm, a company that reportedly has no contractual ties with the electoral body.

The statement revealed that the defendants, in their statements to investigators, claimed that the payments to the company were intended to source cash to pay ad-hoc staff engaged for the 2024 local government elections in Kano State, and that the funds were returned to KANSIEC in cash.

However, the ICPC said its investigation disproved this claim. “Investigation however revealed otherwise as a letter from the defendant addressed to the Manager, Unity Bank, Zoo Road, Kano detailed wherein they requested transfer payment of the sum of N59, 400, 000.00 (Fifty-Nine Million, Four Hundred Thousand Naira), attached with a cheque of same amount and a list of 468 Electoral Officers and 42 Assistance Electoral Officers’ bank details for payment through the banking system. This request, was honoured by the bank, and the beneficiaries, one and all, got their payments.

“Their claim that the banking system or transfers would have been too slow to accommodate their requests in the case of ad hoc staff was found to be a mere conjecture, a screen to hide corruption and a lame excuse to justify the offence of money laundering,” the statement partly reads.

The ICPC also revealed further that irregularities were found in the Commission’s budget for the elections. It alleged that while N20 million was budgeted for a screening and verification exercise covering 484 wards and 44 local government areas, the ICPC discovered that the exercise was held entirely at KANSIEC’s office in Kano.

“The Team did not travel out of Kano and the candidates made it to KANSIEC office in Kano at their own expense, yet the 3rd Defendant in his statement to the ICPC investigating officers stated that the entire budget of N20 million was given in cash to the KANSIEC members who constitute the screening/verification team,” ICPC alleged.