Senator Nenadi Usman, a former Minister of Finance who refunded N140 million and handed over two properties to the federal government amid a corruption investigation, has been named the new Chair of the Labour Party’s Caretaker Committee.
The appointment, made at an extended stakeholders’ meeting in Umuahia, Abia State, on Wednesday, will see Usman lead a 29-member committee tasked with resolving the party’s leadership crisis. Usman, who previously represented Kaduna South in the Senate from 2011 to 2015, is expected to oversee the committee’s work for 90 days. Alongside her is Senator Darlington Nwokocha, the immediate past Senate Minority Deputy Leader, who will serve as Secretary.
The committee’s mandate is to stabilize the party’s leadership and organize a convention to elect new leaders from the ward level to the national stage.
According to reports, Usman has been involved in ongoing legal proceedings concerning allegations of financial misconduct. In 2016, she was charged with fraud involving N4.9 billion, alongside former Aviation Minister Femi Fani-Kayode, Danjuma Yusuf, and the company Joint Trust Dimensions Limited. The charges, brought before Justice Rilwan Aikawa, include 17 counts of money laundering and theft.
In 2022, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) re-arraigned Usman, Fani-Kayode, Yusuf, and Joint Trust Dimensions on charges related to the unlawful retention of N1.5 billion. The case, presented before Justice Daniel Osiagor of the Federal High Court in Lagos, alleges that the funds were proceeds of an illegal act, specifically theft. All the defendants pleaded not guilty, and a trial date was set for March 2022.
One of the counts reads: “That you, Nnenadi Esther Usman, Femi Fani-Kayode, Danjuma Yusuf, and Joint Trust Dimensions Nigeria Ltd., on or about January 8, 2015, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court in Lagos, conspired to indirectly retain the sum of N1,500,000,000, which you reasonably ought to have known forms part of the proceeds of an unlawful act, to wit: stealing.”
Reports further revealed that Usman returned N140 million out of N2.5 billion allegedly linked to the office of the former National Security Adviser, which was used during the 2015 Presidential election campaign. As a condition for her release from EFCC custody, she also surrendered two properties to the federal government.
Usman, who served as the Director of Finance for the Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) Presidential Campaign Organization, was arrested following the discovery of large sums of money transferred to her account, including the N2.5 billion allegedly moved from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). Additionally, N140 million was reportedly deposited into her Zenith Bank account in January 2015.
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