EXCLUSIVE: Nigerian Police Summons Retired Nigerian Correctional Service Comptroller-General Jafaru Ahmed Over Three Birth Dates, The N35 Million Transcorp Hilton Settlement That Buried His Age Forgery Case And The Blackmail War That Followed

The Force Intelligence Department of the Nigeria Police Force has summoned a retired Comptroller-General of the Nigerian Correctional Service, Jafaru Ahmed, to appear before it in Abuja over alleged age falsification, forgery, criminal conspiracy, extortion, bribery and blackmail, and the summons rests on documents obtained by SecretsReporters that lay out three different dates of birth for one man, a N35,000,000 settlement agreed at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel to bury the case, and a petitioner who confessed his own part in the burial before turning on the men who paid him.

The police invitation, dated 10th August, 2026 and signed by DCP Dalhatu Bashir, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Admin), for the Deputy Inspector-General of Police, Force Intelligence Department, Abuja, is headed CGP Jafaru Ahmed Rtd and carries the reference CR: 3000/FID/ABJ/PA-DESK1. It states that the office is investigating alleged case of Criminal Conspiracy, Age Falsification, Forgery, and Blackmail in which his name featured prominently, and it requested him to interview DIG DESK1 on Thursday, 13th August, 2026 at 11am at the Force Intelligence Department complex, opposite Police Force Headquarters, Area 11, Garki, Abuja, through an operative on GSM number 08033409720. The invitation states that it is for fact finding and compelled by law enforcement requirement as provided under section 53(2)(a) of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act 2015.

Behind the invitation sits an Investigation Action Plan dated 29th July, 2026, written by the Staff Officer, Labour and Trade Union to the DIG, FID, Abuja. The action plan names the complainant as Ahmed Muhammed Tahir of Abuja. It names the suspects as Retired CG Jafaru Ahmed, Mr. John Abutu, Retired DCG Shehu Kanguwa and Retired DCG Filibus Bitrus. It names the Investigating Police Officers as CSP Akinlabi Ogundile, ASP Hussaini Maianguwa and ASP Florence. The objectives of the investigation, as written in the plan, are to ascertain the authenticity of the allegations of age falsification and forgery against retired CG Jafaru Ahmed, to establish whether official records of the Nigerian Correctional Service, formerly Nigerian Prisons Service, were altered to facilitate unlawful extension of service, to establish the involvement of the named suspects in the alleged criminal conspiracy, bribery, extortion and blackmail, to verify the alleged payment purportedly made to suppress investigation into the alleged falsification, to identify all persons who participated directly or indirectly in the alleged offences, to recover and analyse documentary, electronic and financial evidence relevant to the allegations, and to establish whether sufficient evidence exists to prosecute any person found culpable.

The case before the police was opened by the petition of Ahmed Muhammed Tahir, dated 19th May, 2026 and addressed to the Deputy Inspector-General of Police, Force Intelligence Department. The petition is titled Petition Against Retired CG Jafaru Ahmed And Others For Offences Of Age Falsification, Forgery, Criminal Conspiracy, Extortion, Bribery, And Blackmail. In its opening lines, the petition describes a severe case of institutional corruption, systemic forgery, and compounding of felonies involving top retired and former CGP Nigerian Correctional Service, alongside a petitioner turned blackmailer, and it states that it is based on official correspondence including a 2016 petition to the National Assembly and a recent demand letter dated February 18, 2026, which unearth a well-orchestrated syndicate designed to cover up official felonies through multi-million Naira inducements.

The petition traces the matter to 3rd June, 2016, when a petition was submitted to the Speaker of the House of Representatives of the 8th Assembly regarding the age falsification of the then newly appointed Comptroller General of Prisons, Jafaru Ahmed. The official records cited in that petition gave the Comptroller-General three distinct dates of birth. The 2002 List of Senior Officers recorded 30/09/1956. The Nominal Rolls of 2008 to 2011 recorded 21/07/1957. The 2014 Nominal Roll recorded 21/07/1959. The 2016 petition, signed by Hassan D. Tukur, set the dates out in a table drawn from the Nigerian Prisons Service nominal roll and the List of Senior Officers from the rank of Superintendent of Prisons, Chief Superintendent of Prisons and above, covering the Sokoto Command rolls of 2008, 2009 and 2010, the headquarters roll of 2011 and the headquarters roll of 2014, and its prayers asked the House to investigate the veracity of the petition by calling for the nominal rolls of the Nigerian Prisons Service for the years in contention, asked that upon confirmation the CGP should be stripped of his new rank and prosecuted accordingly, and asked that the Executive should be advised to do the needful in the interest of justice and fairness by appointing a credible CGP. The 2016 petition built its prayers on the precedent of the decision of the National Judicial Council in the case of the two judges who doctored and falsified their ages, and it recorded that the same CGP had been recommended for demotion by the House after his security detail assaulted and slapped a female lawmaker during the visit of erstwhile CGP Dr Peter Ekpendu to the Assembly complex.

The alteration of official birth dates on government nominal rolls to unlawfully prolong public office service, as the 2026 petition frames the conduct, contravenes Sections 363 and 364 of the Penal Code, and on the strength of the youngest of the three dates, the 21/07/1959 recorded in the 2014 Nominal Roll, Jafaru Ahmed remained in service as Comptroller-General after his appointment in May 2016, received an extension of tenure of one year from 21st July, 2019 to 21st July, 2020, and received a further extension that carried his tenure to 21st January, 2021.

What followed the 2016 petition, according to the petition now before the Force Intelligence Department, was a cover-up bought with cash and promotion. The petition states that following the submission of the 2016 petition, officials representing the Nigerian Correctional Service, acting on behalf of CG Jafaru Ahmed, initiated a criminal cover-up. It names the intermediary as one Mr. John Abutu, then with the NCoS Headquarters Intelligence Unit, who acted as a proxy to buy off the threat, and it states that as a reward he was compensated with an accelerated promotion to a level 8 officer. The petition’s prayers ask the police to investigate Officer John Abutu of the NCoS HQ Intelligence Unit regarding his role as the initial proxy who facilitated the compromise of level 8 public service positions as hush-compensation.

The petition then describes what it calls the Transcorp Hilton Conspiracy. A secret meeting was brokered at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja, between Ahmed Muhammed Tahir, described in the petition itself as the proxy and complainant, Retired DCG Shehu Kanguwa, who held Finance and Budget, and Retired DCG Filibus Bitrus, who held Procurements. At that meeting, according to the petition, an illegal settlement sum of N35,000,000 was agreed upon and paid to suppress the criminal investigation into CG Jafaru Ahmed’s forged birth records.

On the petition’s own account, the settlement held for a decade and then broke down. The petition states that on February 18, 2026, following a breakdown in their illicit terms or a desire for further extortion, Ahmed Muhammed Tahir issued a written complainant to the current Comptroller General of the NCoS, demanding further action and resolution within 7 days, failing which he threatened to expose the 2016 whole issue on the public media. The petition names this section the Current Blackmail, and it places the offences in the Penal Code: forgery and falsification of official documents under Sections 363 and 364, criminal conspiracy under Section 96, defined in the petition as the deliberate collaboration between Jafaru Ahmed, John Abutu, DCG Kanguwa, DCG Bitrus, and Ahmed Tahir to conceal a felony through monetary inducement, and extortion and blackmail under Section 291, defined as the execution of written letters threatening exposure of past misdeeds to extract undisclosed settlements or administrative actions. The complainant’s own name stands inside the conspiracy as the petition itself draws it, and the Force Intelligence Department’s action plan carries Ahmed Muhammed Tahir as the complainant and Jafaru Ahmed, John Abutu, Shehu Kanguwa and Filibus Bitrus as the suspects.

The petition closes with three prayers: to invite and interrogate retired CG Jafaru Ahmed with regards the falsification of his date of birth, to investigate Officer John Abutu, and to prosecute all individuals found culpable to serve as a deterrent against the institutionalization of corruption and blackmail within Nigeria’s paramilitary services. Attached to it are copies of the 2016 National Assembly petition detailing the forged dates of birth, alongside the February 18, 2026 letter written to the current Comptroller-General of the Nigerian Correctional Service.

Jafaru Ahmed, who left the Correctional Service in January 2021 at the end of his extended tenure, has since emerged as the candidate of the All Progressives Congress for the Jega/Gwandu/Aleiro Federal Constituency of Kebbi State in the House of Representatives ahead of the 2027 general elections, the same House of Representatives whose Speaker received the petition against his appointment ten years ago. The police summons of 10th August, 2026 was issued to him as a candidate of the ruling party, and the investigation it opens carries seven written objectives, the last of which is to establish whether sufficient evidence exists to prosecute any person found culpable.

Download the full document file here.