The son of former governor and All Progressives Congress national chairman Abdullahi Umar Ganduje is engineer Umar Abdullahi Umar, executive director of REA’s technical services (APC).
After Ahmad Salihijo’s staff at the agency was placed on extended leave, President Bola Tinubu named Umar to the new REA management team.
As Salihijo was replaced by Aliyu Abubakar, Tinubu also chose three additional people, including Ganduje’s son, to be the Agency’s new Executive Directors.
Ayoade Gboyega, Executive Director, Corporate Services, and Doris Uboh, Executive Director, Rural Electrification Fund (REF), are the other two new directors.
Salhijo, a 2019 appointment of former President Muhammadu Buhari, was placed under suspension together with three of his associate directors.
The directors are Sa’adatu Balgore, Executive Director, Rural Electrification Fund (REF), Barka Sajou, Executive Director, Technical Services, and Olaniyi Alaba Netufo, Executive Director, Corporate Services.
A broader inquiry into the actions of the former REA management team was also mandated by Tinubu due to “a fraudulent misexpenditure amounting to over N1.2 billion over the past two years.”
The presidential spokesman, Ajuri Ngelale, claims that anti-graft organizations have already retrieved some of the embezzled money.
The newly appointed Technical Director of REA participated actively in the elections of 2023. The younger Ganduje was persuaded to run for the House of Representatives seat after his father withdrew from the Senate election.
He had been the APC nominee for the Dawakin Tofa/Tofa / Rimin Gado seat, but he was defeated by Hon. Tijjani Jobe, a ranking member of the New Nigerian Peoples Party.
Engineer Umar is close to his father; he was previously employed at the Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC). Particularly in the youth wing of the Tinubu/Shettima campaign, he was vital.