Nigeria ex-power minister Saleh Mamman jailed 75 years for graft

A Nigerian court on Wednesday sentenced former power minister Saleh Mamman to 75 years in jail for siphoning off millions of dollars from hydro-electricity projects.

Nigeria’s anti-corruption agency, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), said Mamman was found guilty of laundering 33.8 billion naira ($24.6 million).

Nigeria is Africa’s fourth-largest economy and the continent’s top oil producer, but it suffers from acute electricity shortages due to a crumbling grid and inadequate output.

More than 40 percent of Nigerians have no access to grid electricity, according to the World Bank.

Federal High Court judge Justice James Omotosho Abuja “sentenced Mamman to 75 years imprisonment” for money laundering, the EFCC said in a post on X.

Mamman, who was the energy minister between 2019 and 2021, was sentenced in absentia.

He is the first minister who served under former president Muhammadu Buhari, who was revered for his anti-corruption stance, to be jailed for graft.

Several other top officials from Buhari’s government are facing trial for fraud, including a former justice minister, an ex-central bank governor and a former labor minister.