FACE OF FANTASTIC CORRUPTION
It was simply shocking as a cashier at the Nigerian Air Force headquarters, Emmanuel Abu yesterday told a Federal High Court in Abuja, how ex-Chief of Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal Alex Badeh (retd.) stole N558.2m monthly from the Nigerian Air Force accounts.
Abu, a second prosecution witness in Badeh’s ongoing trial, narrated how he routinely converted the N558.2m to dollars and handed them over to former Air Force chief monthly.
Badeh is being prosecuted alongside a company, Iyalikam Nig.Limited by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC on 10 counts of money laundering of the N3.97bn he allegedly fraudulently removed from the Nigerian Air Force’s account.
EFCC has evidence of how Badeh used the ill-gotten fund to buy and develop landed properties in Abuja for himself and two of his sons between January and December 2013.
A former Director of Finance and Account of the Nigerian Air Force, Air Commodore Aliyu Yishau had testified before Abu and he also said he was handing over the dollar equivalent of the N558.2m to Badeh at the Chief of Air Staff’s official residence on a monthly basis. He also told the court the role he played in helping Badeh to use the money to acquire landed assets in Abuja.
Abu, led in evidence by prosecuting counsel, Mr. Rotimi Jacobs (SAN), said he regularly converted N558.2m monthly, after it has been removed from NAF’s Personnel and Emolument account,for 14 months between November 2012 and December 2013.
According to him, in the 14 months period, a total of over N7.8bn was set aside and converted to US dollars. He said only he and the Financial Officer at the headquarters of the Nigerian Air Force Camp, Mogadishu Cantonment, Asokoro, Abuja, Group Captain Mohammed Lawal Sini, (now Air Commodore), were the only signatories to the six accounts operated by NAF.
Sini gave him the instruction for the monthly deduction of the N558.2m immediately Sini became the Finance Officer in November 2014, roughly a month after Badeh became the office of the Chief of Air Staff.
Abu hinted that the N558.2m was a monthly remnant in the Personnel and Emolument account of the NAF after the staffs have been paid their salaries and entitlements.
On how this left-over were usually spent he said: “For the expenditure for the fund, we receive approvals from the headquarters of NAF, usually approved by the Chief of Air Staff, however, in November 2012, when the new Camp Finance Officer resumed, he informed me verbally that there was a standing instruction for the sum of N558, 200,000 to be set aside monthly for headquarters, NAF training and operational purposes.
“He also informed me that the amount is to be converted to US dollars, except there is any other instruction to the contrary.
“I complied with the instruction and I converted the amount monthly, from November 2012 to December 2013, within the 14 months, a total of N7.8b plus was set aside, out of this, within the 14 months, I received instruction to transfer a total sum of N410m to HAFCO Nigeria Limited and N875m plus to Right Builders Technologies.
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