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ACF Crisis Update: BoT Chair, Dalhatu, Suspended
The apex northern socio-cultural organisation, Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), has said it has suspended, with immediate effect, the chairman of its Board of Trustees, Alhaji Bashir M. Dalhatu, over alleged financial misconduct and constitutional breaches.
The sealed ACF national headquarters remained firmly under police control.
Police operatives had on Tuesday sealed the ACF national headquarters located at Sokoto Road, Kaduna.
However, the Kaduna State Police Command denied the report, insisting that its officers were deployed to the ACF premises to prevent a possible breakdown of law and order between two rival factions within the organisation.
Meanwhile, the ACF said the decision suspending the Board of Trustees chairman was reached at the National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting of the forum, presided over by its chairman, Mike Osuman (SAN), with members drawn from 18 northern states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja.
Announcing Dalhatu’s suspension, ACF spokesperson Mohammed Baba, alongside the chairman of the Ethics and Conduct Committee, Prof. Mohammed Jamo, said the decision was based on allegations of financial misappropriation.
Speaking with journalists after the meeting held at an undisclosed venue in Kaduna, Muhammad-Baba said delegates from about 18 northern states and the Federal Capital Territory successfully convened the meeting after relocating from the ACF’s sealed headquarters to another venue in Kaduna.
He said the NEC condemned what it described as the unlawful restriction of access to its headquarters, insisting that it amounted to interference with the right to freedom of association and the organisation’s internal affairs.
According to him, the NEC maintained that there was no leadership crisis within the ACF.
The ACF spokesperson also said the meeting deliberated on the report of an Ethics and Conduct Committee set up to investigate a petition on financial management and governance practices within the forum.
Muhammad-Baba said the committee’s preliminary findings raised serious concerns requiring further investigation, particularly regarding due process and financial administration.
Based on the recommendations, the NEC passed a vote of no confidence in the BoT chairman, Dalhatu, and approved his immediate suspension pending further investigation.
He further revealed that the National Executive Committee of the forum also directed an immediate forensic audit of all financial activities of the ACF, including its Endowment Fund, with instructions to recover any funds found to have been improperly managed.
According to him, the NEC also reaffirmed its confidence in the current National Working Committee led by the forum’s chairman, Mike Mamman Osuman, SAN, and maintained the position of the secretary-general pending any constitutional review process.
The NEC also condemned the alleged police sealing-off of its headquarters, describing it as an unacceptable interference with its operations and constitutional rights.
Chairman of the ACF Ethics and Conduct Committee, Prof. Nuhu Mohammad Jamo, on his part, corroborated the explanation that the panel acted on a petition alleging financial and administrative misconduct against the BoT chairman.
Jamo recalled that the committee invited the affected official to respond to the allegations within 48 hours, but the official did not respond.
“Regrettably, most of our findings, if not all, indicate violations of the constitutional provisions of the ACF,” he said.
Earlier, before his suspension, ACF BoT chairman, Alhaji Bashir M. Dalhatu, in a statement on Wednesday, accused ACF secretary-general, Murtala Aliyu, of refusing to vacate his position after the expiration of his tenure.
Dalhatu further claimed that Aliyu’s refusal to leave was the cause of the crisis in the forum’s leadership.
According to him, “Recently, the Board of Trustees, in line with its duty of ensuring compliance with the provisions of the forum’s Constitution — ACF Constitution Section 24 — including respect for term limits and smooth leadership succession, took several steps which did not seem to have pleased some people, especially Mallam Murtala Aliyu, the secretary-general. As a result, he has devoted a great deal of time and energy to pulling down the entire ACF edifice.
“That, accordingly, these positions have, from 10 March 2026, become vacant. However, Mallam Murtala Aliyu, the Secretary-General, was allowed, at his request, to work on his handover notes and to conclude other departure formalities not later than Friday, 15 May 2026. But in a baffling twist of events, Murtala Aliyu, who, contrary to the ACF Constitution, is in his seventh year as Secretary-General, declared his rejection of all these terms of settlement. He is, interestingly, the only person among the four officials whose tenure ended who refuses to step down.”
Dalhatu, however, denied misappropriating the forum’s funds.
“There has, for instance, been no financial infraction committed whatsoever at the level of the BoT. Every single kobo collected as donations into the ACF Endowment Fund has been deposited safely in the bank; far away from the reach of the secretariat, the NEC, and, for that matter, the BoT,” he explained.
The Federal High Court sitting in Abuja on Thursday convicted a former Minister of Power, Mr Saleh Mamman, of 12 counts of fraud and money laundering, charges preferred against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
The court, in a judgment delivered by Justice James Omotosho, said it was satisfied that the anti-graft agency had successfully established the former Minister’s culpability beyond reasonable doubt.
The court convicted him on all grounds of the charge marked FHC/ABJ/CR/273/2024.
Mamman, who served in the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari, was found complicit in the illegal diversion of public funds totalling about ₦33.8 billion.
The court found that he made a cash payment of $655,700 (equivalent to ₦200 million) for landed property in Abuja, without recourse to a financial institution.
He was also found guilty of criminal breach of trust in relation to funds released by the federal government for the Mambilla and Zungeru Hydroelectric Power Plant projects.
The court noted that most of the funds were siphoned through Bureau de Change operators (BDCs), who converted the money into foreign currencies and handed it over to the defendant.
“The evidence of the prosecution is overwhelming as against the scanty and almost absent defence of the defendant.
“The defendant did not offer any credible evidence to rebut the prosecution’s case,” Justice Omotosho held.
The trial judge decried that the defendant, as Minister of Power, was not bothered about leaving a lasting legacy.
“Rather than creating a legacy to tackle the epileptic power supply in the country, the defendant was living large at the expense of ordinary citizen
“Little wonder that Nigerians have remained in darkness till today,” the judge added.
Meanwhile, the defendant was absent when he was convicted by the court.
Consequently, the court deferred his sentence, even as the EFCC applied for a warrant of arrest to be issued against him.
A lawyer, Mr. Mohammed Ahmed, who announced his appearance for the defendant, told the court that since last Tuesday when the notice of the scheduled judgment was issued, the defendant’s whereabouts had remained unknown.
He said the defendant’s personal assistant later disclosed that he was sick.
The defence lawyer’s spirited efforts to persuade the court to defer the judgment to a later date failed.
The trial judge referenced news items indicating that the defendant had been actively involved in political activities, having purchased a form to contest the governorship election in Taraba State.
On his part, the EFCC’s lawyer, Mr. Rotimi Oyedepo, SAN, urged the court to proceed with the judgment, insisting there was no reasonable justification for the defendant’s absence.
“My Lord should go ahead. If the judgment is in his favour, we know what to do. If it is against him, we also know what to do,” the prosecution counsel added.
Mamman was arrested in 2021, about four months after he was removed from office by ex-President Buhari.
The EFCC produced 17 witnesses who testified before the court and tendered 43 exhibits before closing its case.
The agency, among other things, alleged that he conspired with ministry staff to divert about ₦22bn meant for the Zungeru and Mambilla Hydro Electric Power projects.
The anti-graft agency said its investigations revealed that the suspects used the funds to acquire choice assets, both within and outside the country.
Former Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami has expressed readiness to lose his life in a bid to challenge what he described as injustice by the All Progressives Congress, APC.
Pantami expressed confidence that he would emerge as the governorship candidate of the party if a direct primary is conducted.
The former minister disclosed this in an interview with BBC Hausa.
“I will challenge this injustice of Gombe APC governorship consensus even if I lose my life doing it. If it’s direct primary, everybody knows, we will win.
“If there’s no justice, I will fight it legally, a fight like never seen before in Nigeria,” he said.
FIFA president Gianni Infantino on Tuesday defended World Cup ticket prices, insisting that football’s global governing body was obliged to take advantage of US laws that allow tickets to be resold for thousands of dollars above face value.
FIFA has faced searing criticism over the cost of World Cup tickets, with fan organization Football Supporters Europe (FSE) branding the pricing structure “extortionate” and a “monumental betrayal”.
FSE filed a lawsuit with the European Commission in March targeting FIFA over “excessive ticket prices” for the tournament.
FIFA’s own World Cup resale website, FIFA Marketplace, last week advertised four tickets to the July 19 final in New York at a cost of more than $2 million each.
Speaking at the Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills, Infantino said the eye-watering prices reflected demand to watch the World Cup.
“If some people put on the resale market, some tickets for the final at $2 million, number one it doesn’t mean that the tickets cost $2 million,” Infantino said.
“And number two it doesn’t mean that somebody will buy these tickets,” Infantino said. “And if somebody buys a ticket for the final for $2 million I will personally bring him a hot dog and a Coke to make sure that he has a great experience.”
Fan groups have contrasted the difference in price of tickets for this summer with the Qatar World Cup in 2022.
The most expensive ticket for the final in 2022 was around $1,600 at face value, while in 2026 the most expensive ticket for the final is about $11,000 at its original price.
Infantino was adamant that the steep increase in face-value prices were justified.
“We have to look at the market — we are in the market in which entertainment is the most developed in the world. So we have to apply market rates,” Infantino said.
“In the US it is permitted to resell tickets as well. So if you were to sell tickets at the price which is too low, these tickets will be resold at a much higher price.
“And as a matter of fact, even though some people are saying that the ticket prices we have are high, they still end up on the resale market at an even higher price, more than double of our price.”
Infantino said that FIFA received in excess of 500 million ticket requests for 2026, compared with fewer than 50 million combined for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.
The FIFA leader added that 25 percent of tickets for the group phase were priced at under $300.
“You cannot go to watch in the US a college game, not even speaking about a top professional game of a certain level, for less than $300,” Infantino said. “And this is the World Cup.”
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