The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has declared former Humanitarian Affairs Minister Sadiya Umar Farouq wanted, the latest move in a prolonged pursuit of an ex-official who has repeatedly dodged justice.
The EFCC, in a notice published on its official platform, called on members of the public with useful information regarding Farouq’s whereabouts to contact any of its offices nationwide through the telephone numbers provided in the notice.
The wanted declaration marks a significant turning point in what has become one of the most high-profile corruption cases involving a former member of ex-President Muhammadu Buhari’s cabinet.
The charges against the former minister are staggering in scope. The commission is currently probing alleged financial misconduct involving about ₦37 billion linked to the ministry during her tenure.
At the heart of the matter, Farouq, alongside Permanent Secretary Bashir Nura Alkali and a third defendant, Sani Nafiu Mohammed, face a 21-count charge bordering on breach of trust, abuse of office, fraudulent award of contracts, and conversion of public funds amounting to approximately $1.3 million and ₦746,574,303.
The funds were meant to be refunded to the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management, and Social Development by Visual ICT Limited, being excess funds paid under the National Social Safety Net Coordinating Office (NASSCO) for the validation of rapid response register beneficiaries. The EFCC stated that the alleged offenses contravene Section 315 of the Penal Code.
In plain terms, public money intended for Nigeria’s most vulnerable citizens, those enrolled in social safety net programs, allegedly found its way into private hands.
The story of how Farouq came to be declared wanted is itself a tale of mounting legal defiance. The FCT High Court issued its bench warrant after the EFCC maintained that the defendants had repeatedly failed to comply with court summons and bail conditions.
At the April 16 sitting, EFCC counsel Rotimi Jacobs, SAN, informed the court that the case had been in motion for months, but getting the first two defendants before the court had been a challenge. “We could not arraign them on 15 December because we could not produce them, but their lawyers in court promised that they would produce the defendants, but we didn’t see them,” he told the court.
When her lawyers attempted to explain her absence at the April 16 hearing, the court was unimpressed. Counsel to Farouq, Abdul Ibrahim, SAN, informed the court that her absence was due to ill health and urged the court to accept an affidavit of facts to that effect. However, the court rejected the application.
More alarming were the revelations concerning her passport. Jacobs raised concerns directly before the court: “My lord, since that passport was released to her, she has not returned the passport to the commission.
We do not have the medical report in Saudi Arabia to date,” a disclosure that sent shockwaves through legal circles and raised fears that the former minister may have left Nigerian jurisdiction.
Farouq was appointed by President Buhari in July 2019. She was at the time the youngest member of the federal cabinet. This trailblazing figure headed a ministry created to coordinate Nigeria’s ambitious social investment programs, including the National Social Safety Net and cash transfer schemes targeting millions of poor Nigerians.
She served as minister from 2019 to 2023 under the administration of ex-President Muhammadu Buhari. Her post-office troubles began as early as 2024, when the EFCC invited her to answer questions concerning an alleged ₦37.1 billion fraud uncovered in the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs.
She failed to appear before interrogators at the EFCC headquarters as requested, keeping investigators waiting for over eight hours without official communication.
The case has been adjourned until May 18, 2026, for arraignment and the continuation of trial proceedings, a date now hanging in uncertainty, given that Farouq’s whereabouts remain unknown and she has been formally declared a fugitive.
According to the EFCC, the 52-year-old former minister, who hails from Zamfara State, was last known to reside at EN008, Okpo River, off Agulu Street, Maitama, Abuja. Whether she remains in Nigeria or has fled abroad is a question investigators and the public are now urgently asking.
For a ministry that was established to lift Nigeria’s poorest citizens out of poverty, the allegations, if proven, represent a profound betrayal of public trust. The EFCC has urged any member of the public with information on Farouq’s whereabouts to come forward immediately.
WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW
Former Minister Sadiya Umar Farouq, once celebrated as the youngest minister in Buhari’s cabinet and champion of Nigeria’s social welfare programs, now stands as a fugitive from justice.
The EFCC has formally declared her wanted over an alleged ₦37 billion fraud, money meant to protect Nigeria’s most vulnerable citizens that was allegedly diverted for personal gain.
Despite a court-issued arrest warrant, 21 criminal charges, and months of legal proceedings, she has repeatedly refused to appear in court, surrendered neither her passport nor a medical report she cited as justification for her absence, and her current whereabouts remain unknown.
