By Suleman Ayuba and Onibiyo Segun
ABUJA, Nigeria — A $750 million purchase that placed former Zamfara State governor Abdul-Aziz Abubakar Yari as owner and chairman of Geregu Power now faces questions over its funding and alleged illicit money.
The deal changed who controls a major Nigerian electricity company and put a serving senator at the center of a financial story that reaches beyond Nigeria. Geregu Power operates a 435-megawatt plant in Kogi State and contributes an average of about 10 percent of Nigeria’s electricity generation, according to the company.
In December 2025, Abuja-based Ma’am Energy Limited acquired 95 percent of Amperion Power Distribution Company, the holding company through which businessman Femi Otedola had controlled Geregu. Geregu disclosed that the transaction transferred the indirect controlling interest in 77 percent of Geregu’s issued shares to Ma’am Energy. Premium Times and other outlets reported the transaction value as $750 million.
Geregu’s 2025 annual report and its filing with the Nigerian Exchange confirm that the transaction did not involve a direct sale or transfer of Geregu’s listed shares. Ma’am Energy bought 95 percent of Amperion. Because Amperion already held the controlling block in Geregu, that purchase changed the ultimate beneficial ownership of 77 percent of Geregu’s issued share capital without moving Geregu shares on the exchange. In other words, the name on Geregu’s public share register stayed the same; the people who sit behind the holding company did not.
Why the Deal Matters in Washington
For American readers, the important questions are where the $750 million came from? Who ultimately controls the purchasing company? And, were any of the funds connected to previously investigated financial activity?
That question has a U.S. dimension. Nigeria’s Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission previously identified properties linked to Yari in Maryland as part of an interim forfeiture case. The commission said a 2022 court order covered 10 properties in Abuja, Kaduna, Zamfara and the state of Maryland. An interim forfeiture order is a temporary freeze. It allows the government to hold the assets while interested parties are given a chance to show cause why the properties should not be permanently forfeited.
The Deal Changed Control, Not the Name on the Shares
Ma’am Energy’s purchase of 95 percent of Amperion gave it indirect control of 77 percent of Geregu. Corporate filings identified four significant controllers of Ma’am Energy: Abdulkarim Tsafe, Jari Jafar, Abdulaziz Yari and Abdulaziz Ahmad, each holding 25 percent.
Abdulaziz Ahmad Yari, born in 1994, is the former governor’s son. He should not be confused with his father, Senator Abdul-Aziz Abubakar Yari, who became chairman of Geregu after the transaction.
Who Supplied the $750 Million?
The financial question sharpened after human-rights lawyer Chidi Anselm Odinkalu examined the transaction. In his August 2026 essay “Geregu Power and bandit capitalism?” published by Premium Times and The Guardian, Odinkalu noted that Ma’am Energy, a company controlled by Yari’s family, paid $750 million, or about ₦1.09 trillion, for 95 percent of Amperion.
He observed that the naira value of the deal exceeded Zamfara State’s entire eight-year budget during Yari’s governorship from 2011 to 2019. He also flagged a later ₦6 billion personal payment by Yari toward an outstanding Geregu bond and asked how such a payment by a sitting senator and recent governor to a company in which he is invested would be treated for tax and fiscal-governance purposes.
Those comments are Odinkalu’s published observations about scale, provenance and conflict-of-interest risk. They are not a court finding that the acquisition was financed with illicit funds.
The Presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party, Adewole Adebayo, has accused Senator AbdulAziz Yari of financing terrorism to mask his gold-mining operations in Zamfara State.
He also accused Mr Yari of using proceeds from gold-mining to bankroll the All Progressives Congress Party, headed by President Bola Tinubu, and Tinubu’s re-election.
Speaking at the Nigerian Bar Association’s conference in Port-Harcourt, Rivers State, on Tuesday, Mr Adebayo doubted Mr Tinubu’s intention to tackle terrorism, claiming he was surrounded by the likes of Mr Yari, an alleged terrorist sponsor, whose largesse was funding the APC for the 2027 general elections.
“How can you say you want to fight terrorism when the terrorists are in the Villa and the terrorists are robbing the government, and the terrorists are the ones in Zamfara using terrorism to mine gold and using the gold to fund their campaign and become chairman of the campaign, and you don’t want to recognise that?” the SDP candidate asked?
Premium Times separately reported that a consortium of lenders, led by Zenith Bank, facilitated the buyout, with BlackBirch Capital as financial adviser.
Yari Had Faced Earlier Financial Proceedings
The Geregu questions did not arise in isolation.
In January 2021, the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission announced that a Federal High Court had ordered the final forfeiture of ₦278.99 million traced to Yari and companies linked to him. The commission said the funds were alleged proceeds of unlawful activities held in accounts associated with Yari and those companies.
A separate case involved properties allegedly linked to the former governor. In February 2022, the commission announced an interim forfeiture order covering 10 properties in Abuja, Kaduna, Zamfara and the state of Maryland in the United States. The commission alleged that the properties were proceeds of corruption and sought their permanent forfeiture. The court directed that interested parties be given an opportunity to show cause why the properties should not be permanently forfeited.
A separate allegation surfaced in April 2026. Pointblank News reported that financial-fraud investigator Jackson Ude alleged ₦1.7 trillion had been traced to accounts linked to Yari in connection with alleged terrorism-financing and money laundering. The report also alleged that some of the funds were used to acquire Geregu Power. The same report said there was no official confirmation that the alleged ₦1.7 trillion financed the Geregu acquisition. Yari had not responded to the allegations at the time of publication.
The reported ₦1.7 trillion money trail raises suspicion and warrants scrutiny, but it has not been established in court as Yari’s personal money, as Geregu financing, or as terrorism-financing proceeds.
The Money Trail Now Matters More Than the Claims
“Investigators must identify who provided the $750 million, lenders, equity contributors, beneficial owners and links among Ma’am Energy, Amperion and Yari, while tracing the alleged ₦1.7 trillion,” said Dr. Oriolade Fakorede, a financial consultant and analyst, to TruthNigeria.
Fakorede added that the Geregu transaction, the ownership change, Yari’s chairmanship and the earlier forfeiture proceedings are documented, while the ₦1.7 trillion terrorism-financing claim must be thoroughly investigated and properly probed.
Suleman Ayuba and Onibiyo Segun report on terrorism and conflict for TruthNigeria.
