EFCC grills Ex-Army Chief for 24 hours over $2.1bn arms fraud

dimeji akinloye

February 10, 2016 9:25 PM

Badeh is one of the army chiefs being investigated over the 'stolen' $2.1 billion meant for the procurement of arms for the military.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) operatives on Tuesday, February 9, raided the home of former Chief of Defence Staff Alex Badeh after he had been interrogated for 24 hours.

According to The Nation, which cited a source at the EFCC, it became important to search the former service chief's residence for some vital documents following information gathered from his interrogation.

The source said: "We acted on intelligence report at our disposal. After the search, we made necessary documentation of the items retrieved from the place. Such a search is routine when conducting a sensitive investigation like this.

''Badeh underwent another round of grilling yesterday bordering on the procurement of used aircraft. the ex-CDS may spend longer days in EFCC custody because of the wider scope of the procurement deals in the Armed Forces.

"He is expected to account for purchase of uniforms for the Armed Forces when some officers and men complained of not getting the required pairs. On November 26, 2014, the immediate past Chief of Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshal Alex Badeh sought for approval of the award of one pair of uniform(in the interim) for the Armed Forces at N165, 375 to El-Jahab Mubarak Nigeria and N330,750,000 for two pairs’’.

Other military chiefs being interrogated are former Chief of Air Staff, A.N. Amosu; ex- Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal M.D. Umar; ex-National Security Adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki ; Col. N. Ashinze , who was the Special Military Assistant to the ex-NSA; and the most senior Air Force officer, and AVM A. M. Mamu(the Chief of Administration).

READ:

The rest are AVM O.T. Oguntoyinbo (former Director of Production, Defence Headquarters); AVM R.A. Ojuawo (Air Officer Tactical Air Command, Makurdi; AVM J.B. Adigun(former Chief of Accounts and Budgeting in NAF); and AVM JA Kayode-Beckley(Director, Armament Research in Air Force Research and Development Centre); AVM T Omenyi (MD, NAF Holdings)four top officers at the Defence Headquarters (DHQ), Air Cdre AO Ogunjobi; Air Cdre GMD Gwani; Air Cdre SO Makinde; and Air Cdre AY Lassa.

The Nation reports that some of the areas of investigation are as follows:

- How 10 contracts totalling $930,500,690.00 were awarded

- Payment of N4,402,687,569.41 for unexecuted contracts

- Procurement of two used Mi-24V Helicopters instead of the recommended Mi-35M series at $136,944,000.00.

- 4 used Alpha-Jets for the NAF at US$7,180,000.00 funded by ONSA

- Cannibalization of engines from NAF fleet to justify procurement of jets

- Excessive pricing of 36D6 Low Level Air Defence Radar at $33m instead of $6m per one

- Delivery of radars without vital component of Identification Friend or Foe (IFF) that distinguishes between own and adversary aircraft

- Strange transfer of $2m to Mono Marine Corporation Nigeria Limited owned by some Air Force officers

- N15bn lavished on the maintenance of its Alpha-Jets, C-130H aircraft and Mi-24V/35P helicopters.

- N2.5billion contracts awarded to Syrius Technologies( Ukrainian company) not registered in Nigeria

- Award of 7 contracts worth N599,118,000.00 contracts to Defence Industry Corporation of Nigeria(DICON) but two delivered.