Bashir Ahmad, an aide to President Muhammadu Buhari, resigned in May, but federal payroll records show that he has continued to illegally withdraw funds from the federal government’s coffers, receiving his full salaries for May, June, and July, People’s Gazette reports.
On May 11, after turning in his nomination and expression of interest paperwork for the APC House of Representatives ticket, Ahmad deleted the phrase “personal assistant to the president on new media” from his Twitter bio, signalling his departure from the government.
Ahmad removed his designation — personal assistant to the president on new media — from his Twitter bio after submitting his expression of interest and nomination forms for the APC House of Representatives ticket on May 11, signalling his resignation from the regime.
Ahmad began publicly identifying himself as a former presidential aide, during several campaign rallies in his home state of Kano.
However, according to records from the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) for federal officials, Ahmad was paid millions of naira in May, June, and July under his payroll number 372121.
Ahmad’s monthly salary was N1,043,176.88, with his take-home pay totaling N876,738.37 after statutory deductions, according to records.
As a result, Ahmad was paid N3,129,530.64 in illegal salaries for the three months he claimed he resigned and did not work as a federal employee. The illegal payment did not include the various allowances and federal estacodes that Ahmad and other presidential aides received.
Following the president’s acceptance of Ahmad’s resignation in early May, federal payroll regulations required the immediate deletion of his banking information from the system.
Under the condition of anonymity, federal payroll management officials said that some of the ministers forced to resign by the president due to their political ambitions had their banking credentials immediately revoked.
“I had returned the salaries I received during the period I wasn’t in the office,” Ahmad’s said in a message Monday evening.
He declined a request to supply evidence of his refund of the illegal payments to the federal treasury.
