How ex-power minister landed biggest-ever jail term for Nigerian govt official

A Nigerian federal court sentenced Saleh Mamman, former power minister to 75 years in prison on Tuesday, delivering what legal analysts say is the stiffest custodial term ever handed to a serving or former government minister in the country’s history, in a case that lays bare the chronic misappropriation plaguing Africa’s largest economy.

Justice James Omotosho of the Federal High Court in Abuja convicted Mamman on all 12 counts filed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, ruling that state prosecutors had established their case beyond a reasonable doubt. The judgment, delivered in the former minister’s absence, was met with immediate orders for his arrest through Interpol.

The sentence caps a prosecution that exposed the systematic looting of funds earmarked for two of Nigeria’s most strategically important energy infrastructure projects, the Mambilla and Zungeru hydroelectric power developments, at a time when the country’s chronic electricity shortfall continues to drag on economic output and daily life.

The charges

Mamman was arraigned in July 2024 on a 12-count charge bordering on money laundering and criminal conspiracy after the EFCC alleged he colluded with ministry officials and private companies to divert approximately N33.8 billion in public funds meant for the Mambilla and Zungeru hydropower projects. He pleaded not guilty.

The prosecution mounted a methodical case over months of trial, calling 17 witnesses and tendering 43 documentary exhibits before the court. Justice Omotosho ultimately sided entirely with the state.

The court sentenced Mamman to seven years on each of 10 counts, with additional consecutive terms of three years and two years on the fourth and fifth counts, respectively.

The judge ordered all sentences to run consecutively rather than concurrently, a significant distinction that produced the cumulative 75-year figure, and stripped the convicted minister of the option to pay a fine as an alternative to imprisonment on all but one count, where a N10 million fine was permitted.

Beyond the prison terms, the court ordered the forfeiture of foreign currencies recovered during investigations, as well as four properties in Abuja traced to Mamman, further dismantling the financial architecture the anti-graft commission said he erected with stolen public money.

Who is Saleh Mamman

Mamman served as minister of power under former President Muhammadu Buhari from August 2019 until September 2021, when he was removed during a routine cabinet reshuffle and replaced by Abubakar Aliyu. The timing of his exit from government drew little public scrutiny at the time, but the EFCC’s subsequent investigation would cast that tenure in an entirely different light.

Born on January 2, 1958, in Taraba State in Nigeria’s northeast, Mamman built his early career in technical education and public administration. He holds a Higher National Diploma in Electrical Electronics from Kaduna Polytechnic and a Master of Business Administration from Bayero University Kano — credentials that made him a technically credible pick to oversee Nigeria’s beleaguered power sector.

He began working life as a teacher at a technical school in Mubi, Adamawa State, in 1981, later transferring to Taraba State following its creation in 1992. He rose through the civil service to the rank of assistant director in the Taraba State Ministry of Works before retiring from public service in 2002 to concentrate on business and politics.

A fugitive judgment

The circumstances of the conviction are themselves notable. Justice Omotosho had initially convicted Mamman in absentia after the former minister failed to appear in court on the day of judgment, prompting the court to issue a bench warrant for his arrest. Wednesday’s reporting of the sentence formalized those terms and extended the enforcement mechanism internationally, with the judge directing Nigerian security agencies to work with Interpol to ensure Mamman is apprehended and the sentence executed.

The prospect of extraditing a former Nigerian cabinet minister from a foreign jurisdiction adds yet another layer of complexity to a case that already implicates some of the country’s most sensitive infrastructure spending. Neither the EFCC nor the office of Nigeria’s Attorney-General had responded to requests for comment at the time of publication.

Broader implications

The verdict lands at a fraught moment for President Bola Tinubu’s administration, which has repeatedly pledged to accelerate Nigeria’s anti-corruption drive while simultaneously grappling with the consequences of decades of underinvestment in the power sector.

The Mambilla project, first conceived in the 1970s, remains unbuilt. Zungeru, though partially commissioned, continues to operate well below its designed capacity.

For the EFCC, the conviction represents a marquee result in its campaign against grand corruption, and the agency is expected to use it as a template for further prosecutions of officials implicated in infrastructure fraud.