Reported by: Ijeoma G | Edited by: Oravbiere Osayomore Promise.
Former Minister of Humanitarian Affairs Sadiya Umar Farouq has asked a Federal Capital Territory High Court to set aside the arrest warrant issued against her in an alleged $1.3 million and N746.6 million fraud case, a motion the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission fiercely opposed. The matter was adjourned for ruling until Wednesday, June 10.
The warrant was issued by Justice Jude Onwuegbuzie on April 16, 2026, after the former minister and a former Permanent Secretary in the ministry, Bashir Nura Alkali, failed to appear for their scheduled arraignment. Both defendants had been granted administrative bail but did not show up in court. Only the third defendant, Sani Nafiu Mohammed, was present.
At the resumed hearing on Monday, June 8, Farouq was again absent. Her two co-defendants, Alkali and Mohammed, were present. Farouq’s counsel, Oladipo Okpeseyi, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, told the court that his client was not present because of medical challenges. He prayed the court to hear an application he had filed seeking to set aside the arrest warrant that had been issued against her.
“My lord, she is not in court because of medical challenges. We have filed an application to set aside the bench warrant issued on April 16,” Okpeseyi said.
But EFCC counsel Oluwaleke Atolagbe objected. He argued that the application could not be entertained because the defendant had not yet been formally arraigned. “According to the records of the court, the application cannot be heard until after arraignment,” Atolagbe said. He reminded the court that the defence had earlier given an undertaking to produce the former minister at Monday’s sitting.
Okpeseyi countered that the application was a preliminary issue that the court was fully entitled to consider even before the formal reading of the charge. He warned that refusing to hear it would effectively deny his client a fair hearing. “If the court cannot hear it, it is tantamount to abandonment. An arraignment is the prosecution presenting the accused person to court,” he argued.
When Justice Onwuegbuzie asked the defence lawyer when his client would be available to appear in court, Okpeseyi said communication with Farouq had been difficult because of what he described as a “10-day holiday period in Egypt”. He added: “We are not the medical doctors to give the conditions of her health.”
The trial judge noted that the court needed to know how to act. “The court is aware that you are not the medical doctor, and neither is the court,” he said. He then allowed the application to be heard.
In his submission, Okpeseyi urged the court to set aside the arrest warrant. But Atolagbe asked the court to dismiss the application and urged it to disregard the medical reports tendered by the defence, arguing that they lacked credibility.
Justice Onwuegbuzie adjourned the matter until June 10 for ruling.
The former minister, who served under President Muhammadu Buhari from 2019 to 2023, is being prosecuted alongside the two co-defendants on a 21-count charge that includes criminal breach of trust, abuse of office, fraudulent award of contract, and conversion of public funds.
According to the charge sheet, the defendants are alleged to have misappropriated funds amounting to about $1.3 million and N746.6 million meant to be refunded to the ministry. The money was part of excess payments made to Visual ICT Limited by the National Social Safety‑Nets Coordinating Office for the validation of beneficiaries under the Rapid Response Register programme.
On May 9, 2026, the EFCC declared Farouq wanted. In a public notice, the commission asked anyone with information on her whereabouts to contact its offices nationwide. Her last known address was listed as EN008, Okpo River, off Agulu Street in the Maitama district of Abuja.
The former minister had previously been questioned by the EFCC in January 2024 over allegations of corruption in the handling of N37.1 billion in social intervention funds during her tenure.
At the Monday hearing, while Farouq remained absent, her two co-defendants were present in court. The EFCC had earlier asked the court to vacate the arrest warrant against Alkali, noting that he had surrendered himself at the commission’s office in obedience to the court’s order. The prosecution also informed the court that it was seeking cooperation with international partners to locate the former minister, who they believe may be outside Nigeria.
Justice Onwuegbuzie, who has consistently refused to grant long adjournments in the matter, has expressed frustration over repeated attempts to delay the proceedings. At a previous sitting, the judge warned that he would not tolerate unnecessary delays and ordered that the former minister be produced in court “even if she has to come in a wheelchair”.
As the legal drama continues, the court will on Wednesday decide whether the arrest warrant issued against the former minister should be set aside or allowed to stand.
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