Abdullahi Aliyu

Dr. Aliyu Abdullahi OON (born 28 January 1957) is a Nigerian Civil servant who joined the Civil Service in August 1988 and became a Permanent Secretary in January 2001. In 2003, he was appointed Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology. In July 2007, Abdullahi Aliyu said that he had received a presidential mandate to explore the use of nuclear energy in Nigeria for the generation of electricity.

In March 2008, as the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Energy (Power Section), Abdullahi Aliyu testified before a panel investigating expenditures in the power sector in the previous eight years. Aliyu said that contracts had been awarded by the former minister of Power and Steel and the Presidency, and said that the civil service had not been involved in the contract awards and payments.

In May 2009, he was suspended from office and arraigned by a High Court in Abuja over alleged fraud in the rural electrification contracts, along with Senator Nicholas Ugbane and 7 others. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) said the accused had breached public trust and conspired among themselves to defraud the country. The High Court ordered that the accused be remanded in prison custody until June 4, 2009 when it would decide on their bail requests. He was granted bail, but in June 2009 was rearrested by the EFCC on fresh charges. In November 2009, the EFCC preferred a fresh 130-count charge for defrauding the government of over N5.2bn. All of the accused pleaded "not guilty". In December 2017, the Court of Appeal in Abuja discharged and acquitted Dr. Abdullahi Aliyu for the offences of conspiracy to commit criminal breach of trust and criminal breach of trust contrary to Section 97 (1) and Section 315 of the Penal Code ACT CAP. 532 LFN 1990. Provided by Wikipedia