Former Nigerian Air Force (NAF) Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Adesola Amosu, has reportedly returned N2.3 billion to the federal government. Amosun and over nine air force officers are currently under investigation for their alleged involvement in arms procurement fraud.
According to Sahara Reporters, a source at EFCC who spoke on condition of anonymity said
“I can confirm to you that Amosu has returned N2.3b. He raised two bank drafts. One draft was N2b while the second was N300m”.
In Amosu’s Badagry home, the EFCC had also recovered about $140,000 in cash.
The PUNCH
had also reported that the anti-graft agency recovered N381m from
Amosu’s wife, Omolara. The money was recovered in three tranches of
N180m, N101m and N100m.
The
detective told PUNCH that the money was traced from the account of the
Nigeria Air Force to the bank accounts of a company in which Amosu’s
wife is a director.
Calculations by PUNCH on Tuesday showed that so far, the EFCC had recovered at least N4bn from Amosu in cash and assets.
Amosu
and over 10 senior officers are being probed by the EFCC as part of the
$2.1bn arms scam, especially in relation to the 10 contracts of the NAF,
said to be worth $930,500,690.00.
Amosu
and his predecessor, Air Chief Marshal Alex Badeh (retd.) were in
January arrested for the non-specification of procurement costs, absence
of contract agreements, award of contracts beyond authorised
thresholds, transfer of public funds for unidentified purposes and
general non-adherence to provisions of the Public Procurement Act.
The
investigation also centred on the payment of N4,402,687,569.41 for
unexecuted contracts; the procurement of two used Mi-24V helicopters
instead of the recommended Mi-35M series at $136,944,000.00; four used
Alpha-Jets for the NAF at US$7,180,000 funded by ONSA; the
cannibalisation of engines from NAF fleet to justify procurement of
jets; and the excessive pricing of 36D6 Low Level Air Defence Radar at
$33m instead of $6m per one.
Besides,
N2.5bn contracts were allegedly awarded to Syrius Technologies ( an
Ukrainian company) not registered in Nigeria and seven contracts worth
N599,118,000.00 to the Defence Industry Corporation of Nigeria; two were
delivered
While Amosu was granted bail, Badeh was charged to court where he is currently facing trial.
A
detective at the EFCC said, “Amosu has been cooperating with us and has
been returning funds. However, Badeh was very stubborn. Since he refused
to return funds, we took him to court.”
The source revealed that the EFCC had traced 17 accounts to Badeh and had frozen all of them.
“Badeh’s
case is in court so I cannot talk much about it. However, even after he
was charged, we continued to investigate his case. We have frozen all
of his accounts including the dollar accounts he opened here in
Nigeria.”
A
former Director of Finance and Accounts at the NAF, Air Commodore Salisu
Yushau (retd.), who is an EFCC witness, had revealed before a Federal
High Court sitting in Abuja, that all past air chiefs diverted N558.2m
monthly from funds meant for the payment of salaries of Nigerian Air
Force officials.
The EFCC source said that the commission had reason to believe that the diversion of funds at the NAF was still ongoing.
He
said, “We were told that over N558.2m was diverted by the office of the
Chief of Air Staff monthly and the money was converted to dollars. We
were told that air force officers from the rank of air commodore and
above all benefitted from the money.
“We
believe that even after Amosu had left, they still shared money. We were
told that even in February, these illegal deductions were still made.
In due course, our findings will be made public.”
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