The hunt for one of Nigeria’s highest-profile fugitives has ended. Operatives from the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) tracked down and arrested former Minister of Power, Saleh Mamman, during an intensive early morning raid in Kaduna state. Mamman had vanished into thin air weeks ago, completely evading justice until a federal court sentenced him in absentia to a massive 75 years in prison for multi-billion naira corruption.
A 3:30 AM Raid Ends the Runaway Minister’s Weeks in Hiding
The anti-graft agency closed in on the former minister at around 3:30 a.m. on Tuesday at a residential property in the Rigasa area of Kaduna. EFCC Chairman Ola Olukoyede confirmed the successful operation, revealing that Mamman had been actively hiding with the help of local accomplices.
During the swift raid, EFCC operatives also arrested two other individuals who were inside the building, protecting and shielding the convicted felon from law enforcement. The agency has placed the property owners under formal investigation, noting that harboring a fugitive convict is a serious federal crime. This arrest concludes a dramatic and embarrassing chapter where a high-profile political suspect managed to completely slip out of sight while standing a major criminal trial in Abuja.
The federal case against Mamman, who ran Nigeria’s power ministry from 2019 to 2021 under former President Muhammadu Buhari, shows the immense scale of financial bleeding within the country’s energy sector: On May 7, Justice James Omotosho of the Federal High Court in Abuja found Mamman guilty on all 12 criminal counts of money laundering and conspiracy. The judge handed down a 75-year prison sentence to run consecutively, without any option of a fine.
Siphoned Project. The court established that Mamman used proxy businesses and close associates to split and divert a massive ₦33.8 billion ($24.7 million). This money was explicitly earmarked by the federal government to build critical national infrastructure, specifically the Zungeru and Mambilla hydroelectric power projects. Along with the jail time, the federal court ordered the immediate, final forfeiture of millions in foreign currency recovered from the ex-minister, alongside four luxury properties located in Abuja.
Mamman is currently sitting in heavy EFCC custody as legal teams process his immediate transfer to a federal correctional center to begin serving his multi-decade sentence. He also faces a completely separate ₦31 billion fraud trial, where a separate arrest warrant had been issued against him.
Locking Up One Big Fish
The sheer wickedness of siphoning ₦33 billion meant for critical hydroelectric power projects like Mambilla and Zungeru is hard to put into words. While Mamman and his inner circle were busy buying up luxury Abuja estates and stashing foreign cash, ordinary citizens were left sitting in total darkness, watching utility bills skyrocket while receiving zero electricity.
The fact that a high-profile politician standing trial for stealing billions could just casually go missing and force international security agencies like Interpol to hunt him down shows how weak our judicial supervision handles elite suspects. Olukoyede can praise his “eagle eyes” all he wants, but the focus must now shift to tracing every single kobo of those stolen billions. Locking up an elderly, disgraced politician in a jail cell is a good start, but true justice only happens when those diverted resources are fully recovered and actually pumped into fixing our broken energy infrastructure.
