The
Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has recovered N381m from the wife
of the immediate past Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Adesola Amosu.
Adesola Amosu
The EFCC revealed on Saturday that it recovered the N381m from Mrs.
Omolara Amosu, wife of the former Chief of Air Staff, in three
tranches: N180m, N101m and N100m.
According to The Punch, a detective revealed 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. He added that Amosu’s
wife is a signatory to the accounts.
He said, “We recovered N381m from Amosu’s wife, Omolara.
Initially, we recovered N180m from her account before another N101m and
then N100m. These were monies transferred from Air Force accounts.”
Explaining how the money was diverted, the detective added, “They
(Air Force officers) sent the money to an account where their wives
have interests or are signatories without doing anything.”
The Punch reports that a second source within the EFCC said that
more properties belonging to the immediate past Chief of Accounts and
Budgeting of NAF, Air Vice Marshal J.B. Adigun, had been seized.
The detective said a property, which is a quarry located in Ogun
State, had equipment worth about $600,000. He, however, did not state
the value of the property.
Two weeks ago, houses worth over N2bn in Ikoyi and Victoria Island allegedly belonging to Adigun were seized.
The source said, “Adigun is still here with us. We recovered a
quarry which he owns. In the quarry there were pieces of equipment worth
about $600,000. They have all been impounded and investigations are
ongoing.”
Amosu, Adigun and over nine air force officers are currently under
investigation by the anti-graft agency for the procurement of equipment
which was said not to be transparent.
Since his detention, Amosu had been quizzed over the procurement of
two second-hand Mi-24V Helicopters instead of the recommended Mi-35M
series at a cost of $136.9m.
The helicopters were alleged not to be operationally airworthy at
the time of delivery while a brand new unit of such helicopters costs
about $30m.
Meanwhile, it was learnt that Amosu and some other officers would
be charged to court as soon as the holding charge which the EFCC
obtained in court to hold the officers for 30 days from January 28
lapses.
