Riau Governor Abdul Wahid to be Discharged Immediately in Connection with the Ransom Case

JAKARTA - The non-active Governor of Riau, Abdul Wahid, will soon be tried in connection with alleged extortion in the Riau Provincial Government (Pemprov) environment. The case file was declared complete and has been forwarded from the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) investigator team to the prosecutor.

"Investigators have completed the second phase, by handing over evidence and three suspects to the prosecutor's team," KPK spokesman Budi Prasetyo told reporters, Monday, March 2.

In addition to Abdul Wahid, investigators also handed over the files of other suspects. They are M. Arief Setiawan as Head of the PUPR Service of the Riau Provincial Government and Dani M Nursalam as Expert Staff of the Riau Governor.

"Furthermore, the JPU will prepare a letter of indictment within a maximum of 14 working days, so that the case file will be forwarded to the Corruption Court (Tipikor) for trial," said Budi.

As previously reported, the KPK has named three suspects in alleged extortion related to the addition of the 2025 budget allocated to the I-VI Regional Road and Bridge Unit of the PUPR PKPP Service. They are the Governor of Riau Abdul Wahid; M. Arief Setiawan as Head of the Public Works, Spatial Planning, Housing, Residential Areas and Land Agency (PUPR PKPP) of the Riau Province; and Dani M. Nursalam as an expert of the Governor of Riau.

Abdul Wahid et al. became suspects after being caught in a hand-in-hand operation (OTT) on Monday, November 3. They have been detained for the first 20 days until November 23, 2025.

This case began when there was an addition to the 2025 budget allocated to the I-VI Regional Road and Bridge UPT of the PKPP PUPR Service, which was originally Rp. 71.6 billion to Rp. 177.4 billion.

It is suspected that there is an ability to provide a fee of 2.5 percent which was then discussed in a cafe in the Pekanbaru City area, Riau. The discussion was carried out between Ferry Yunanda as the Secretary of the PUPR PKPP Office together with six UPT.

Then Ferry conveyed the results of the meeting to M. Arief as Head of the PUPR Office of the Riau PKPP and representative of Abdul Wahid. But, Arief actually asked for 5 percent or Rp7 billion and threatened to remove the Head of the UPT who did not deposit.

As a result of their actions, the suspects violated the provisions in article 12e and/or article 12f and/or article 12B of Law Number 31 of 1999 concerning the Eradication of Corruption Crimes as amended by Law Number 20 of 2001 concerning Amendments to Law Number 31 of 1999 concerning the Eradication of Corruption Crimes jo. Article 55 paragraph (1) of the Criminal Code.