Vice-Admiral (Rtd) Murtala Hammanyero Nyako

Vice-Admiral (Rtd) Murtala Hammanyero Nyako - former Chief of Naval Staff under General Ibrahim Babangida (1990-1992), former Military Governor of Niger State in the late 1970s, and elected civilian Governor of Adamawa State from 29 May 2007 until his controversial impeachment on 15 July 2014 - is the central defendant in one of Nigeria's longest-running and most procedurally tortured anti-corruption prosecutions. On 23 July 2015 the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission filed a 37-count charge at the Federal High Court, Abuja (suit FHC/ABJ/CR/293/2015) alleging that Nyako, his son Senator Abdul-Aziz Murtala Nyako (Adamawa Central), his other son Abubakar Aliyu Nyako, associates Zulkifiu Abba and Mohammed Wuse, and a constellation of corporate vehicles - Sebore Farms and Extension Ltd, Pagado Fortunes Ltd, Blue Opal Ltd, Tower Assets Management Ltd, and Crust Energy Ltd - conspired between January 2011 and December 2014 to divert approximately N29 billion from Adamawa State Government coffers through criminal conspiracy, stealing, abuse of office, and money laundering. The EFCC alleges the funds were extracted under the guise of security votes, contract payments, and Secretary-to-State-Government-directed disbursements, then laundered through proxy corporate accounts into private real-estate holdings in Abuja and Yola, and into farm assets. The case has cycled through three Federal High Court judges: first Justice Evoh Chukwu, who arraigned the defendants in 2015 and granted N350 million in aggregate bail before his death on 8 June 2016; then Justice Okon Abang, before whom the trial restarted de novo on 12 September 2016 and who on 19 July 2021 delivered a landmark ruling that Nyako had a case to answer, ordering the defence to open. Nyako's appeal against that order was dismissed by the Court of Appeal on 19 January 2022, and on 24 January 2022 the trial court gave him 24 hours to open his defence. However, Justice Abang's elevation to the Court of Appeal in 2023 forced yet another reassignment, this time to Justice Peter Lifu, before whom the matter was RE-ARRAIGNED DE NOVO on 21 March 2024 on the same 37-count charge - nearly nine years after the original filing. All defendants again pleaded not guilty. The re-arraignment was marked by dramatic outbursts from the 81-year-old retired admiral, who exclaimed from the dock 'I do not have the faintest idea about the allegation' and 'You want to send me to jail so that I can die?' In a stunning open-court revelation, former Attorney-General of the Federation Michael Aondoakaa (SAN), now representing Nyako, disclosed that the late President Muhammadu Buhari had personally directed former AGF Abubakar Malami (SAN) to liaise with the EFCC to settle the matter out of court on account of Nyako's age. By July 2025, Justice Lifu had halted substantive proceedings to permit EFCC and Nyako's legal team to conclude an advanced plea-bargain negotiation - a development that drew immediate public condemnation from SaharaReporters and civil-society groups who labelled it an abdication of accountability for an alleged N29 billion theft. The Nation reported in late 2025 that Buhari's death had further stalled the settlement framework, and the court has now fixed 16 October as a settlement deadline. Nyako has from the outset maintained complete innocence, framing the prosecution as a political vendetta linked to his 2013 defection from the PDP to the APC and the impeachment that followed - an impeachment that both the Court of Appeal (11 February 2016) and the Supreme Court (16 December 2016) ultimately declared illegal, null and void, ordering payment of all his accrued entitlements from the date of impeachment. His defence contends that Sebore Farms is a legitimate private agricultural enterprise predating his governorship and not a fraud conduit. The Nyako prosecution has become a touchstone case in debates about EFCC capacity, judicial-turnover delay, the propriety of plea bargains for high-value alleged grand-corruption defendants, and the procedural protection that wealth, age and political connection afford former governors in Nigeria's anti-graft system - a case now in its eleventh year and counting, with no defence witness yet called before Justice Lifu.