In Ghana, Malam Ahmed Dasuki, son of deposed Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Ibrahim Dasuki, is not only well
regarded and famous as an astute businessman, but one of the richest Nigerians that have, in the past few years, made the West African country their home. The Dasuki scion, as was gathered by this magazine, had also, with his wealth, involvement in philanthropic activities and membership of elite clubs, become close to top Ghanaian government officials.
Despite his immense popularity just across the border, Ahmed is, at present, a fugitive in his home country of Nigeria. Indeed, two warrants of arrest – by Upper Sharia Court, Sokoto since 9 August 2010 and another, issued by the High Court of Federal Capital Territory on the request of Nigerian branch of Interpol on 19 October, 2012 – have been issued in the past three years against the architect and a director in various blue chip companies, including IBTC Investment Bank; MTN Nigeria Communications Limited; Philips Project Centre, among others. The warrants were issued as part of efforts directed at getting the businessman to give account of the management of the estate of his late brother, Aliyu Dasuki. The immensely wealthy Aliyu who is widely believed to have been close business associate of Nigeria’s former military leaders, General Ibrahim Babangida (retd) and the late General Sani Abacha, died intestate in 1992 after suffering a massive stroke.
The deceased’s business interests, as TheNEWS learnt, spanned countries as diverse as United States, Germany, United Kingdom, Switzerland, China and Chile. Indeed, Aliyu, was the star of the family because he was hugely successful in business. He was among the first set of Nigerians to benefit from oil block. Aliyu is survived by his wife, Hajiya Jamila – now married to General Muhammadu Gusau, former National Security Adviser – and three children – Amina, Balkisu and Aliyu, who were then minors. As a Muslim who died without making a will, his estate was subject to distribution to his wife and children, based on the Islamic principle of Sharia.
Aliyu, younger brother of Alhaji Abubakar Alhaji, Nigeria’s former Finance Minister was raised by the deposed sultan since he was 2 years old. Like his elder brother, Abubakar (Triple A), he also married the ex-Sultan’s daughter. Following the death of Aliyu, former Sultan Ibrahim Dasuki, in 1992 directed Ahmed to act as administrator of his (Ahmed’s) brother-in-law and cousin’s estate, since the children of the deceased were still minors.
Following his appointment, Ahmed was said to have embarked on several trips to places around the world where the deceased owned businesses, during which he applied for and got letters of administration over the business interests, landed property, bank accounts and other assets of the late Aliyu. As contained in a petition to Mohammed Adoke, Attorney-General of the Federation, last year by Umaru Shinkafi & Co, a firm of legal practitioners which filed charges of criminal breach of trust against Ahmed at the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, Aliyu has since then refused to yield to efforts to make him give account of his administration of his late brother-in-law’s estate.
•Ahmed Dasuki: On the run
The estate of the deceased, as listed in the petition, include a house at 29, Rabah Road, Kaduna, a gold mine in Chile, an apartment in Chile, Holdtrade Tradings, Holdtrade Establishment, Holtrade SA, Hold-Trade Air, Hold-Trade Nigeria, Hold-Trade Travel, Kwara Bricks, Hold-Trade Tradings and shares in Maersk Nigeria Limited. The existence of these property and businesses were confirmed in a 29 November 1994 report of the firm of C. Nonyelum Okeke Esq, a team of solicitors engaged by Ahmed himself. The petition, by Umaru Abdullahi & Co. to the AGF, arose from the frustrations of the late Aliyu’s family over the failure of Ahmed to give account of the proceeds realised from his administration of the deceased’s estate.
This was despite several efforts to make him do so. For one, in reaction to the increasing restlessness of the heirs to the estate, the deposed Sultan Dasuki had in 1996 set up a six-man committee, tagged “Late Aliyu Dasuki Estate Committee”, to which he directed Ahmed to give the account of his management of the estate. The committee had as chairman, Alhaji Abubakar Alhaji, former Minister of Finance, while one Malam Suleiman M. Aliyu served as the secretary. The committee was assigned the task of guiding and helping Ahmed secure and distribute the estate of the late Aliyu he might have identified in accordance with the principle of Sharia. It was learnt that Ahmed met with the committee about 13 times during which he presented reports of his management of the estate. In the end, however, the committee, as indicated in some documents in possession of this magazine, was informally disbanded in frustration due to what was described as Ahmed’s uncooperative attitude.
Though it did not achieve its primary purpose, documents produced in the course of the committee’s work however yielded good information about Ahmed’s administration of Aliyu’s estate as well as some of the property of the deceased’s he administered. For example, in the minutes of the meeting of the committee held on 23 December1996, Ahmed acknowledged the property and businesses listed at the time he took over as the administrator of the deceased’s estate and those he had sold off. In the record of the meeting of the committee of 13 March 1999, Ahmed confirmed that he sold the house at 29, Rabah Road, Kaduna for N25 million and though he was instructed to pay the money into the account of the heirs to the estate, he never did so.
Also, in the minutes of the committee’s meeting of 13 January 2001, Ahmed admitted that he had sold the gold mine, part of the deceased’s estate in Chile, but he never repatriated the proceeds. In the minutes of an earlier meeting of the committee, held on 10 April 1999, Ahmed admitted that he sold off part of the deceased’s estate in Chile for $800,000, but never repatriated the proceeds to the beneficiaries.
The Sokoto High Court, which granted Ahmed the letter of administration of the estate, was also worried that contrary to the condition stipulated, he never turned in the report of his administration of the estate from 1993 to August 1999. It was gathered that as a result, Justice Bello Abdullahi Gusau, who was then the Chief Judge of the state in 1999 when the businessman was granted the letter of administration, wrote to the former Sultan, asking him to prevail on his son to render account to the court.
This state of affairs forced Aliyu’s widow to apply to a Sokoto High Court, sometime in 1999, that the letter of administration granted to her brother over her late husband’s estate should be withdrawn and re-granted to her as an administratrix.
This magazine learnt that this jolted Ahmed, who quickly – and for the first time – filed what he tagged, “Interim Statement of Account/ Inventory November 1992 to July 1999, to the court. But the report was said to be virtually useless in terms of concrete information on the proceeds he realised from the management of the estate. And though he described the report as interim, it was gathered that Ahmed has not submitted the final account to the court till date.
• Aliyu: Died intestate in 1992
This medium learnt that when it dawned on him that the letter granting him administration might be withdrawn, Ahmed, in a letter dated 29 October 1999, wrote to one Mrs. Madeleine Weber Bosch, whose services he had retained in connection with Hold-Trade Establishment (said to be mother company to all the other companies owned by the late Aliyu), directing her to “hand over all pertinent documents of Hold-Trade Establishment having continuing effects to one Mr. Nonyelum Okeke for further disposition and to destroy forthwith all other documents, files, vouchers and remit the balance in the said company’s account to a bank account to be designated by Mr. Okeke”.
At the time Ahmed gave the instruction, he knew that Hold-Trade Establishment had in its possession vital documents through the property left behind by the late Aliyu and his activities as the administrator of the estate could be traced, investigated and audited. Thus, it was believed that the order to destroy the records was Ahmed’s ploy to obliterate traces of his management of the estate. However, Ahmed, in a letter to Dasuki dated 27 September 2009, said the destruction of the documents was necessary to “avoid scrutiny of the documents by the Federal Government of Nigeria who (sic) were investigating funds looted by General Abacha”.
Ahmed’s action however did not stop the Sokoto High Court from cancelling his letter of administration and appointing the late Aliyu’s wife as administratrix of the estate. Sources told this magazine that Ahmed’s failure to formally hand over the records of his management of the estate despite several invitations to do so in some letters (seen by this magazine), has left the new administratrix with no information to work with whatsoever.
It was also learnt that at a time, a decision was taken by members of the family to appoint an independent auditor to assess Ahmed’s management of his late cousin’s estate. Apart from the Sultan, others present when the decision to appoint the independent auditor was taken include Ahmed himself, Sambo Dasuki (now, the National Security Adviser) and one Zainab. Indeed, in May 2006, the former Sultan, after receiving an interim report from the auditor asking for his cooperation in its implementation, wrote to Ahmed: “Now, I have received my own copy of the interim report which is very clear. As I am travelling on May 8th – June 14th, I strongly urge you to cooperate fully in order to settle the matter once and for all. There is no alternative to your full cooperation.” Though Ahmed was part of the decision to appoint the auditor, it was learnt that the audit report could not be implemented as a result of Ahmed’s failure to make himself available in Nigeria when it was submitted. Ahmed ignored his dad’s request and didn’t reply the former Sultan’s letter until three years later!
To force Ahmed to render account of his stewardship, Hajiya Jamila filed, simultaneously, two cases against Ahmed, at the Sokoto High Court and the Upper Sharia Court, also in the same city. In the suit, Hajiya Jamila Dasuki & 2 Ors vs Ahmed Dasuki, filed at Sokoto High Court, the main claim is for the businessman to render account of his management of his late cousin’s estate in a satisfactory manner to the beneficiaries. In the application through her lawyer, Hajiya Jamila urged the court to, among other prayers, compel the defendant not only to render account of his dealings, but also to be responsible for all ‘misdeeds’ while serving as the administrator of her late husband’s estate. The case at the Upper Sharia Court 1, Sokoto, Aliyu Dasuki vs. Ahmed Dasuki, is a direct complaint of criminal breach of trust and causing destruction of evidence against the businessman.
Proceedings in the suits have however been suspended several times at the instance of Ahmed. The usual excuse for applying for suspension of proceedings was that the family was exploiting the option of amicable settlement which so far has come to naught. He has also, on several occasions, attempted to drag his father, the former Sultan, into the matter as a concerned party with the aim of turning the case into a family feud.
In a suit filed 29 November 2010 at the Sokoto High Court by his solicitors, Yahya Mahmood and Co., the former Sultan asked the court to join him in the suit earlier filed by Jamila. The deposed Sultan disclosed in the motion of notice that he is the father of the 1st Plaintiff and the Defendant, and as the 2nd Defendant in the suit, who prevailed on Ahmed to accept to be the administrator of the late Aliyu Dasuki’s estate, he “has a duty to him (Ahmed), especially as no crime has been established against him personally or against those he hired to help him execute the job”.
The octogenarian said his decision to be joined as a co-defendant in the suit was as a result of Jamila’s refusal or failure to listen to wise counsel on the matter. He added: “Ahmed has also always indicated his readiness to pay to Jamila Aliyu Gusau any amount she believes she lost due to his alleged negligence.”
He added: “As a father, I spoke to Ahmed and Jamila to allow me intervene so that the matter can be amicably resolved. I followed up with a letter to (the) two of them. I subsequently set up a committee of eminent northerners to hear her complaints against her own brother and the firm he hired to carry out the assignment but she has shown more faith in the law courts.”
However, the elder Dasuki failed to acknowledge that his son had failed to honour several invitations by the court and had indeed kept away from Nigeria in spite of successive orders, thus forcing the Sokoto Upper Sharia Court to issue a bench warrant against him. There is also the argument that the former Sultan failed to acknowledge the fact that the behaviour of his son is against the stipulations of the Holy Qur’an as regard treatment of inheritance and orphans. Excerpts from An-Nisaa, or The Women, Qur’an, Chapter 4 Verse 2 states: “To orphans, restore their property (when they reach their age), do not substitute (your) worthless things for (their) good ones; and devour not their substance (by mixing it up) with your own. For this is indeed a great sin.”
Verse 6 of the same chapter states: “Make trial of orphans until they reach the age of marriage; if then ye find sound judgment in them, release their property to them; but consume it not wastefully, nor in haste against their growing up. If the guardian is well off, let him claim no remuneration, but if he is poor, let him have for himself what is just and reasonable. When ye release their property to them, take witnesses in their presence; but all sufficient is Allah in taking account.”
With the court cases not making any significant headway as a result of Ahmed’s antics, the complainants, through their lawyers, petitioned the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, to intervene in the matter in January 2011. But the anti-graft agency also seemed to be powerless in bringing the accused to account for his actions. This magazine learnt that it was out of frustration about EFCC’s inaction that the complainants and their lawyers petitioned the Minister of Justice to intervene in the matter on 18 May 2011.
In addition to the assets Ahmed had earlier admitted to disposing of during the series of meetings with the Alhaji Alhaji committee, Jamila’s lawyers, in the petition to the AGF listed other property of the deceased he had mismanaged or disposed of without rendering any account to anybody. Ahmed was also accused of disposing of the assets of different companies owned by the late Aliyu and continuing to receive dividends from shares of companies owned by his late cousin and brother-in-law, without transferring the funds to the family.
Assets of Aliyu allegedly disposed of by the accused, as listed in the petition to the AGF, include an oil block in the name of Hold-Trade Holdings Limited, 5 per cent shareholding in Maersk Nigeria Ltd valued at over N13 million, the air operating licence and two aircraft in the fleet of Hold-Trade Air. Ahmed was also alleged to have converted to his own, the late Aliyu’s shares in IBTC Ltd and IBTC Nigeria Equity Fund, and a house at Washington. “It is conservatively estimated that through the estate, [the complainants] may have lost well over N2 billion due to the criminal breach of trust, criminal misappropriation and neglect of the suspect during his term as the administrator of the estate,” the complainants concluded in their petition. It was however gathered that upon the receipt of the petition, the Minister of Justice tried to explore the option of out-of-court settlement of the issue, especially, as a source in the Justice Ministry told this magazine, all those involved are members of the same family, and a very prominent one at that. Indeed, sources claim that investigation by the EFCC on the issue was also suspended as a result of the intervention of Adoke, the AGF.
But when the option of out-of-court settlement failed, as a result of what the Ministry of Justice described as the “non-cooperative attitude of the accused” after about a year, the AGF had no option than to ask the Inspector-General of Police to liaise with the EFCC in the investigation of allegations against Ahmed. “I am directed to inform you that the attached petition has been received by the Hon. Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, requesting for an investigation to be conducted into the affairs of the estate of late Aliyu Dasuki, particularly the allegations of criminal conversion and misappropriation of the estate,” Akinlolu Akintewe, Deputy Director in the Department of Public Prosecutions of Ministry of Justice said in the letter he wrote on behalf of the AGF to the IGP.
In the letter with the title: ‘Re: Criminal Conversion And Misappropriation Of The Estate Of Late Aliyu Dasuki,’ the AGF added: “I am to inform you that Ahmed Dasuki, who is at the centre of the dispute, has fled to Ghana in order to evade arrest in execution of a Bench Warrant issued against him by the Upper Sharia Court 1, Sokoto. The assistance of the Interpol can be sought in this regard.” The letter was written on 26 June 2012.
This magazine gathered that, based on this letter and upon the conviction of the Inspector-General that the suspect has a case to answer, the police approached an Abuja High Court to procure an international warrant of arrest against the accused on 19 October 2012. Having secured the warrant, the police subsequently declared the suspect wanted on the website of Interpol. It was gathered that the suspect refused to leave the shores of Ghana while the warrant of arrest remained in force.
But to the amazement of the complainants, the warrant of arrest was removed from the Interpol website last December. Some sources claimed the police had, after the publication of the warrant of arrest, come under pressure from some members of the Dasuki family, using the National Security Adviser. Thus, the police were forced not to challenge the move to vacate the warrant of arrest when the application for the discharge was filed at Abuja High Court by Major Bello Fadile (retd), counsel to Ahmed. Thus, though the police were served the application, the law enforcement agency was not represented in court during the hearing of the petition.
Fadile was not only a course mate of Colonel Sambo Dasuki at Nigeria Defence Academy, he has also been working closely with him since he was appointed the NSA by President Goodluck Jonathan last year. But in a telephone interview with this magazine, Fadile said he acted as a lawyer and that the case has nothing to do with the NSA. According to him, the case for the vacation of the warrant was duly filed, heard in court and judgment delivered. He also dismissed claims that all the parties were not put on notice, arguing that it is the job of the court to serve court processes.
In his defence, Ahmed, in a letter to his father on 27 September 2009, blamed the controversies surrounding the estate of his late cousin on his ‘abrupt’ removal as the administrator and failure of the new administrator to carry out a full audit of his stewardship after taking over. “Yet the new administrator, Jamila, persistently accuses me of misappropriating funds of the estate as a result of which she instituted court action against me on various occasions,” Ahmed added. He also said the property located at Washington harbour-unit PH-107 3030 K Street, N.W. Washington, which he was accused of illegally converting to his own, was actually purchased jointly by himself and one Yaya Sambo sometime in 1998. Ahmed also said that the letter he wrote to Mr. and Mrs. Weber instructing them to hand over all pertinent documents of Hold-Trade Establishment having a continuing effect to Mr. C.N Okeke, destroy all other documents, files and vouchers and close all the company’s accounts and transfer the balances to an account designated by Mr. C.N Okeke, was to avoid scrutiny of the documents by agents of the Federal Government of Nigeria who were investigating assets of the late General Abacha.
He however said none of the instructions was carried out as the letter to the said Mr. and Mrs. Weber was never delivered. Ahmed, who said he had to settle the bill of lawyers who worked with him in the administration of the estate, also informed his father that he opened a joint account with Yaya Sambo “over three years ago with the sole aim of saving funds to settle any claim in the highly unlikely event that any wrongdoing is established against me in the discharge of the financial affairs of the estate”.
Ahmed, in a letter to his father, wrote that his intention was to allow the cases to be concluded as he was confident that he had discharged the affairs of the estate with “full sense of honesty and intergrity”, adding that no specific figure had ever been claimed against him in all the court actions. “However, due to my concern for your health and peace of mind, which this protracted problem has continued to take its toll on, I have decided to concede and not to contest any figure claimed against me. My only prayer is that they should be fair to me and do a full audit of my stewardship to determine if there was any financial impropriety. Should they be unwilling to do so, then I’m willing to accept any figure claimed against me.”
Contrary to his assertions, however, this magazine gathered that Ahmed never made the necessary documents available for scrutiny by the new administratrix when he was removed and therefore, there was no way she could have embarked on the audit of his stewardship.
In a bid to end the rift between Ahmed Dasuki and Aliyu’s family, another committee, headed by retired Supreme Court Justice, Uthman Mohammed, was appointed. But Jamila and her children rejected the $400,000 Ahmed offered. Not even Justice Mohammed’s raising of the offer to N100,000,000 could sway Jamila’s resolve. This much was gleaned from a letter by the retired jurist to the deposed Sultan, dated 9 February 2010, in which he said, “The offer of N400,000 (Four hundred thousand dollars) made by Ahmed was not enough. I personally increased the offer to N100,000,000 (One hundred million naira) as settlement between both parties. Ahmed has agreed to pay the amount. Jamila and her children are, however, not agreeable to this proposal. They insist that the court action in Sokoto must continue.”
Desperate to keep children and widow of Aliyu Dasuki quiet, Ahmed proposed to pay to each of them US$1,242,000 (One million, two hundred and forty-two thousand United States dollars), in letters dated 2 and 5 December, 2006. He claimed in the letter addressed to Amina, Bilkisu and Aliyu Dasuki that their late father in 1988 entrusted him with the sum of N50,000 only, for each of them; and that he should hand over the money to them when the youngest of them, Aliyu Jr., reaches 21 years of age.
“I took his instructions with all sense of responsibility, with only Allah as the witness, and invested the said money. In my discretion, I changed the money into US dollars (US$7,800) and invested it. Today, 18 years after he entrusted this task to me, Alhamdu lil Lah, the N50,000 has, with Allah’s blessing, blossomed to a handsome sum of US$1,242,000 (One million, two hundred and forty-two thousand United States dollars), about N160 million for each of you. By the 26th of December, 2006 the instruction will mature, and I will handover the investments to you. I thank Allah for enabling me to discharge this trust, accordingly.”
But Aliyu’s son, Aliyu Jr. declined the offer in a letter dated 16 December 2006.
“I will like to have full details of the investment from 1988 to date and where the investment was made. You also proposed that I open an account with Barclays Bank either in Lagos or London, so that the said money can be transferred to me. In this regard I humbly write to say I decline the proposal to open the account with the said bank.” Instead, he directed Ahmed to upon maturity post the money to their mom’s account. As it turned out, Ahmed never rendered account on the money as demanded by Aliyu Jr.
Indeed, the essence of the gamut of court cases is to get Ahmed to come forward with his record of administration of Aliyu’s estate for scrutiny. Mahmood Yahya, a senior advocate and lawyer to the Dasuki family, told this magazine last week that the “issues and misunderstandings” on the administration of the late Aliyu’s estate by his cousin are in the process of being amicably resolved and that the court cases, suits and appeals would soon be withdrawn from court. The senior advocate who said he would not want to speak much on the issue so as “not to prejudice settlement of a purely family and private matter”, added that the former Sultan had pledged that if there was any negligence found on the part of those who worked for him as the administrator, Ahmed was willing to settle.
He also said the warrant issued by the Abuja High Court for Ahmed’s arrest on request by the police was vacated because it was an abuse of court process since the matter was before another court in Sokoto. According to Yahya, there was an application for certiorari before a Sokoto High Court on the case before it was made to the Upper Area Court, Sokoto, which is now in the Court of Appeal Sokoto.
However, the warrant of arrest issued against Ahmed at the Upper Sharia Court in Sokoto is still in existence as the judge said the accused has to appear personally for it to be vacated. Therefore, the discharge of the warrant issued to Interpol has no effect on the warrant issued in Sokoto, which can only be lifted by the same court.
The Upper Sharia Court presided over by Justice Abubakar Alkanchi first issued the warrant of arrest against the accused, but later vacated it on 16 September 2009, to provide opportunity to explore a settlement out of court. But the judge later set aside the order vacating the warrant of arrest in line with provisions of sections 149 and 150 of the Sharia Criminal Procedure Code when he was told that the accused had repeatedly failed to make himself available for the out-of-court settlement. By reviving the warrant of arrest in 2012, the judge had given the green light for the arrest of Ahmed.
Yet, there are fears that with the prominent position being occupied by members of the Dasuki family, it may be difficult for the police to move against Ahmed.
Close family sources told this magazine that prior to his administration of the estate of the late Aliyu, Ahmed was an architect practising in Kaduna. His emergence as a shrewd investor in blue chip stocks, they said, came only with the commencement of his administration of the estate. And, it was gathered, this is why many believed that those investments were made with proceeds of the income accruing to the estate, which he converted to his own. But even as the criminal and civil proceedings against the accused continue in court, the question is: Will Ahmed make himself available in Nigeria to, at least, clear his name?
Responding to a question on why he had not persuaded his client to return to the country to clear the allegations against him, Yahya said Ahmed has kept away from Nigeria because there was an attempt on his life. “He couldn’t for sure know who was behind it. He is busy with his businesses abroad.”
