DSS Arrests Former NIRSAL Boss, Aliyu Abdulhameed Over Alleged Financial Fraud

The Department of State Services (DSS) has arrested the former Managing Director of Nigeria Incentive-based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL), Aliyu Abdulhameed.

Although SaharaReporters could not immediately ascertain the time and reason he was arrested, his arrest may not be unconnected with financial fraud and criminal diversion of agency’s fund.

A picture of Abdulhameed seen by SaharaReporters on Monday showed him sitting on bare floor at one of the DSS offices.

Reports had it on June 8, how the former Managing Director of NIRSAL, Aliyu Abdulhameed, allegedly siphoned close to N1billion using the private bank account of the agency’s Head of Finance, Idris Issa Aweda, as a conduit.

According to the report, Aweda uses three personal bank accounts: FCMB (4986133010), GTB (0245155058), and Stanbic IBTC (0021195810) to receive proceeds of fraud on behalf of Abdulhameed.

Although NIRSAL is not a security agency, Abdulhameed fraudulently orders payment of money for “advance for security challenge in the North-East on the farms fields”, “security challenge in the North-Central on the farms fields”, “advance for external security issue armoured car” and “advance for security challenge in the South-East on the farms fields”.

 

These illegal funds are directly wired into the private bank accounts of Aweda.

 

For instance, at 4:50pm on August 16, 2017, NIRSAL paid N8m into the GTB account number 0245155058 of Aweda being payment for “security”.

 

Also, on October 6, 2017, at 4:56pm, NIRSAL credited Aweda’s GTB account with the sum of N8m for “security imprest”.

 

As at October 2019, Aweda still received money in his personal account.

 

At 9:31am on October 23, 2019, over N12m was paid into Aweda’s FCMB account 4986133027.

 

SaharaReporters had discovered that Abdulhameed used Aweda’s personal bank accounts to perpetuate financial fraud so as to eliminate anyone tracing the stolen funds to him.