How ex-Gov Shema diverted N5.7bn SURE-P money– Witness

A Federal High Court in Katsina was on Tuesday told how former governor of Katsina, Ibrahim Shema, used about N5.7 billion Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme (SURE-P) for politics during his tenure in the state.

Nasiru Ingawa, a former special adviser to the ex-governor gave the explanation when he testified before the court at the resumed hearing of a fraud case against Shema.

Ingawa, claimed that Shema directed him to use the money for politics during his time as the governor of Katsina.

Introducing himself as the Special Adviser to Shema on SURE-P from June 2014, to May 2015, Ingawa told the court, “I remember him (Shema) telling me that we were going to use the funds for politics and that we would extract our savings from there.”

According to him, the governor and he wrote memos for certain programmes and used half of the money for the programmes, while the remaining half went into savings. He added the department made direct purchases from which a certain percentage would go into savings.

Also noting that they sometimes wrote memos for programmes that were never implemented, Ingawa said, “The tradition is that I had to sit down and discuss with him on any programme; if he agreed, he would instruct me on exactly how much the savings should be from that programme.”

He went further to tell the court that sometimes he used to give the funds to Shema directly, while some other times, he (Shema) instructed him on who to give.

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He said that “all money from SURE-P account was withdrawn in cash, with the exception of a few programmes which the withdrawal was done with cheques.”

The prosecution counsel, O. I. Uket, applied for an adjournment after Ingawa’s testimony, which the defence counsel did not oppose.

The matter was then adjourned by the presiding judge, Justice Hadiza Rabiu Shagari till January 14, 2019, for the continuation of trial.

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