Muhammadu Dikko Yusufu | |
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Inspector General of the Nigerian Police | |
In office 1975–1979 |
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Preceded by | Kam Salem |
Succeeded by | Adamu Suleiman |
Personal details | |
Born | November 10, 1931 |
Died | April 1, 2015 | (aged 83)
Nationality | Nigerian |
Occupation | Police Officer |
Alhaji Muhammadu Dikko Yusufu also known as MD Yusufu or MD Yusuf (November 10, 1931 – April 1, 2015) was a Nigerian policeman, Inspector General of the Nigerian Police Force, public servant and politician. Muhammadu Dikko Yusufu rose to the position of Inspector General of the Nigerian Police, a post he held from 1975 to 1979 during the military rule of Generals Murtala Mohammed and Olusegun Obasanjo. He was appointed chairman of Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) in 1994. In 2003, he ran as a presidential candidate.
Dikko Yusufu was chairman of Nigeria LNG in 1994 when a consortium led by Halliburton's KBR subsidiary was bidding for a contract to construct a LNG export facility in competition with the US corporation Bechtel. In a letter to Yusufu in September 1994, the oil minister Don Etiebet said that the NLNG board had "seriously tinkered with the integrity of the pending contract award". He considered that there had been breaches of commercial confidentiality, that may have benefited the consortium led by KBR.
During a probe into alleged bribes by KBR, a London-based consultant, Mr Jeffrey Tesler said he had advanced money to Muhammadu Dikko Yusufu in the form of a repayable loan. The $70,000 loan was made during a visit by Yusufu to London in 1998 or 1999. Attempts were made to implicate US Vice-President Dick Cheney in the corruption scandal, which involved over $180m of bribes on behalf of a consortium led by Halliburton.
Muhammadu Dikko Yusufu headed the Grassroots Democratic Movement in Nigeria during the period of transition to democracy launched by General Sani Abacha in 1997–1998. The organization had a left wing orientation. In 2000, he became chairman of the Arewa Consultative Forum, a Northern cultural and political association.
After the April 2003 elections, both Muhammadu Buhari of the ANPP and Dikko Yusufu, who had run as presidential candidate of the Movement for Democracy and Justice (MDJ), challenged the election victory by President Obasanjo. However, in June 2003, Muhammadu Dikko Yusufu, said that defeated contestants who were not ready to go to court should accept their defeat in good faith.