Court Orders Arrest of Sadiya Farouq Over $1.3m Fraud Case

FCT High Court orders arrest of Sadiya Farouq and a permanent secretary over alleged $1.3m and N746.6m fraud tied to humanitarian funds.

Atlantic Post

April 16, 2026

3–5 minutes

Abuja, Atlantic Post, Bashir Nura Alkali, Breaking News, EFCC, FCT High Court, Humanitarian Ministry, Sadiya Umar Farouq

A Federal Capital Territory High Court in Apo, Abuja, has issued a bench warrant for the arrest of former Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Sadiya Umar Farouq, and the ministry’s former Permanent Secretary, Bashir Nura Alkali, after both failed to appear for arraignment in a 21 count fraud case brought by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.

The matter, heard on Thursday, 16 April 2026, also involved a third defendant, Sani Nafiu Mohammed, who was present in court when the case was called.

The arrest order turns what had already been a high profile anti corruption file into a far sharper legal confrontation.

According to the EFCC, the defendants are facing allegations of breach of trust, abuse of office, fraudulent award of contracts and conversion of public funds amounting to about $1,300,000 and N746,574,303.

The agency says the funds were linked to excess payments that were meant to be refunded to the ministry by Visual ICT Limited under the National Social Safety Net Coordinating Office, NASSCO, for the validation of Rapid Response Register beneficiaries.

At the centre of the courtroom drama was the prosecution’s insistence that the defendants had not simply failed to show up by accident.

Rotimi Jacobs, SAN, told the court that the first and second defendants had evaded service and could not be produced for arraignment despite earlier assurances from their lawyers.

In a pointed submission, he urged the court to permit the commission to arrest them so they could be compelled to appear.

“We are praying your lordship to issue a warrant of arrest,” he said in substance, as the EFCC pressed for the bench warrant.

The defence pushed back by blaming ill health. Abdul Ibrahim, SAN, counsel to Ms Umar Farouq, told the court her absence was due to medical reasons and tried to tender an affidavit of fact, but the application was rejected.

The defence also asked for six weeks within which to produce the ex minister, a request the court declined to entertain.

The clash over her absence was made more delicate by the prosecution’s claim that she had earlier travelled abroad for medical reasons after her passport was released, but had not returned it and had not provided what the EFCC considered satisfactory medical documentation.

That passport dispute matters because it goes to the heart of how the prosecution is framing the case.

The EFCC says the first defendant sought permission for a medical trip to Saudi Arabia in 2024, got her passport back for that purpose, and then failed to return it or provide medical reports that matched the timeline being advanced by the defence.

The commission also told the court that the affidavit and supporting medical papers presented in court were dated after the charge had already been filed.

In legal terms, the immediate issue is not guilt but compliance. The warrant forces appearance and keeps the criminal process moving.

The wider investigative significance is larger than the individuals named in the charge. The alleged transactions sit inside one of the most sensitive parts of government spending, humanitarian intervention and social safety net payments, where public trust is supposed to be strongest and controls are expected to be tightest.

If the EFCC’s allegations are sustained at trial, the case could expose how refund money linked to public welfare programmes was allegedly diverted instead of being returned to the ministry.

That is why the matter is being watched not only as a fraud prosecution but as a possible audit of the financial culture inside a ministry that handled emergency relief and social protection funds.

This latest case also lands against a heavier backdrop of earlier scrutiny. In 2024, Sadiya Umar Farouq was detained by the EFCC over allegations connected to an alleged N37.1 billion fraud probe, a development that had already placed her stewardship of the ministry under sustained public and legal examination.

The new arrest warrant does not determine the merits of the current charge, but it does show that the anti graft pressure surrounding the ministry has not faded.

Justice Jude Onwuegbuzie adjourned the case to 18 May 2026 for arraignment and trial. For now, the order is procedural, not punitive, but it is a serious signal that the court expects the defendants to appear and answer the charge.

In a country where high level corruption cases often drag on for months or years, the issuance of a bench warrant against a former federal minister and a top civil servant is a significant escalation and a reminder that the courts can still compel attendance when defendants stay away from the dock.