Dr. Abdullahi Shehu, was, until recently, the Director-General of the Inter-Governmental Action Group against Money Laundering (GIABA), ECOWAS and is currently a Professor of Criminology at the National Open University of Nigeria. He has a distinguished career in combatting financial crimes across West Africa, most particularly in Nigeria where he was a Secretary of the Presidential Task Force on Financial Crime, and Special Adviser to the Head of State on Economic Affairs, Drugs and Financial Crimes. In these capacities, he represented Nigeria at bilateral and multilateral negotiations on Drugs and Financial Crimes Control, one of which initiated the establishment of GIABA.

Professor Shehu has published numerous books and articles on anti-corruption and anti-money laundering regulation. He has consulted widely on these areas for many international organisations, including the Commonwealth Secretariat, Interpol and the United Nation Office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC). Recently, Professor Shehu was nominated a non-career ambassador by the Nigerian President. He has his degrees from the prestigious Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) Zaria, the University of Abuja and University of Hong Kong.