President Muhammadu Buhari has ordered the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to immediate commence investigations into alleged shady deals in procurement of arms by some serving and retired officers of the Nigerian Air Force and the Army.
Certain companies, local and international, indicted by the committee established to audit the procurement of arms and equipment in the Armed Forces and Defence sector from 2007 to 2015, are also to answer queries from the anti corruption agencies.
In a statement made available to newsmen by Buhari's Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, the AVM J.O.N Ode (rtd)'s committee found 20 serving and retired officers culpable in the fundamental breaches associated with the procurements by the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) and the Nigerian Air Force (NAF).
Those officers found culpable include Air Chief Marshal AS Badeh (Rtd); Air Marshal MD Umar (Rtd); Air Marshal AN Amosu (Rtd); Maj-Gen. ER Chioba (Rtd); AVM I.A Balogun (Rtd); AVM AG Tsakr (Rtd); AVM AG Idowu (Rtd); AVM AM Mamu; AVM OT Oguntoyinbo and AVM T. Omenyi.
Others to face the anti graft agency are AVM JB Adigun; AVM RA Ojuawo; AVM JA Kayode-Beckley; Air Cdre SA Yushau (Rtd); Air Cdre AO Ogunjobi; Air Cdre GMD Gwani; Air Cdre SO Makinde; Air Cdre AY Lassa; Col N Ashinze and Lt Col. MS Dasuki (Rtd).
Those 21 companies mentioned in the arms procurement sleaze include MessrSociete D’ Equipments Internationaux; Himma Aboubakar; Aeronautical Engineering and Technical Services Limited; Messrs Syrius Technologies; Dr Theresa A. Ittu; Sky Experts Nig Ltd; Omenyi Ifeanyi Tony; Huzee Nig Ltd; GAT Techno Dynamics Ltd; and Gbujie Peter Obie.
Others companies indicted by the committee were Onuri Samuel Ugochukwu; Spacewebs Interservices Ltd; Oguntoyinbo Tayo; Oguntoyinbo Funmi; Delfina Oil and Gas Ltd; Chief Jacobs Bola; Mono Marine Corporation Nig Ltd; Geonel Intergrated Services Ltd; Sachi Felicia; Mudaki Polycarp and Wolfgang Reinl.
The President ordered investigations into the activities of all these companies and their directors in the arms procurement fraud.
According to the statement, "the breaches identified by the Audit Committee include non-specification of procurement costs, absence of contract agreements, award of contracts beyond authorized thresholds, transfer of public funds for unidentified purposes and general non-adherence to provisions of the Public Procurement Act.
"Furthermore, the procurement processes were arbitrarily carried out and generally characterized by irregularities and fraud. In many cases, the procured items failed to meet the purposes they were procured for, especially the counter insurgency efforts in the North East.
"A major procurement activity undertaken by ONSA for NAF was that concerning the contracts awarded to Societe D’ Equipment Internationaux (SEI) Nig Ltd.
Between January 2014 and February 2015, NAF awarded 10 contracts totalling Nine Hundred and Thirty Million, Five Hundred Thousand, Six Hundred and Ninety US Dollars ($930,500,690.00) to SEI Nig Ltd.
"Letters of award and End User Certificates for all the contracts issued by NAF and ONSA respectively did not reflect the contract sums. Rather, these were only found in the vendor’s invoices, all dated 19 March 2015. Additionally, some of the award letters contained misleading delivery dates suggesting fraudulent intent in the award process. The observed discrepancies are in clear contravention of extant procurement regulations.
"The SEI contracts included procurement of two used Mi-24V Helicopters instead of the recommended Mi-35M series at the cost of One Hundred and Thirty Six Million, Nine Hundred and Forty Four Thousand US Dollars ($136,944,000.00).
"However, it was confirmed that the helicopters were excessively priced and not operationally air worthy at the time of delivery. A brand new unit of such helicopters goes for about Thirty Million US Dollars ($30m). Furthermore, the helicopters were delivered without rotor blades and upgrade accessories”.
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