Saleh Mamman, a former minister of power who fled the country’s capital by taxi after being sentenced to 75 years in prison has begun serving his term, following a court order on Tuesday that formally commenced his incarceration and opened proceedings to seize five additional properties allegedly tied to his looting of public funds.
Saleh Mamman, who served as minister under former President Muhammadu Buhari, was transferred to the Nigeria Correctional Centre in Kuje, Abuja, after being brought before Justice James Omotosho of the Federal High Court in Maitama. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, which prosecuted the case, confirmed the development in a statement by its spokesman, Dele Oyewale.
The courtroom drama offered a revealing portrait of a man whose fall from one of Nigeria’s most powerful ministerial offices has been swift and undignified. A relative, Shamsudeen Mohammed, told the court that shortly after Mamman’s conviction on 13 May, the former minister had quietly slipped out of Abuja — sick, he said, and in need of traditional medicine — in a taxi bound for Kaduna State, where EFCC operatives eventually tracked him down and arrested him last week.
“He was brought by a taxi from Abuja to Kaduna,” Mohammed told the court, adding that he had no knowledge of who owned the apartment in the Rigasa area of Kaduna where Mamman had been found sheltering. Mamman himself told the judge he had stayed away from the original sentencing proceedings on grounds of ill health.
Justice Omotosho was unmoved. “The sentence starts to run from today,” he told Mamman directly. “You were in Abuja when the judgment was passed. You were in Abuja when the sentence was passed. You left alone in a taxi for Kaduna. I have done my work.”
Mamman had been sentenced in absentia on 13 May after failing to appear for the conclusion of his trial. He was found guilty of stealing public funds totalling approximately 33.8 billion naira — one of the largest corruption convictions in recent Nigerian history.
Tuesday’s proceedings also featured an application by the EFCC for the forfeiture of five further properties allegedly linked to the former minister, in addition to assets already seized. The properties named include Walijam Apartments in the upmarket Wuse 2 district of Abuja, Bloom Luxury Suites in Kaduna, two mansions on Misratah Street in Wuse 2, and a commercial plaza on Kade Street, also in Wuse 2.
The proceedings were complicated by the conspicuous absence of Mamman’s legal counsel, Femi Atteh, who had reportedly been notified of the forfeiture application. A lawyer said to be representing him declined to accept the application documents and then left the courtroom without addressing either the judge or the prosecution — a discourtesy the court did not overlook. Mamman told Justice Omotosho he had had no contact with his lawyer since his arrest on 19 May.
In the interest of due process, the judge declined to rule immediately on the asset forfeiture, ordering instead that Mamman be served personally so that he may retain a lawyer of his choosing. The matter was adjourned until 8 June for a full hearing on the application.
The case has become a touchstone for Nigeria’s anti-corruption drive at a moment when public scepticism about accountability in high office remains acute. The scale of the conviction — 75 years, across 15 concurrent counts — and the spectacle of a former federal minister fleeing sentencing in a taxi have given the proceedings an unusual symbolic weight, even in a country long inured to headline-grabbing corruption trials.
