FORMER chief of air staff Air Marshal Adesola Amosu has rejected an offer by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to refund his share of the $2.1bn Dasukigate cash in exchange for being let go.
Arrested earlier this week in connection with the arms scandal in which money meant for military purchases was shared among government officials, Air Marshal Amodu is being interrogated in connection with 10 contracts awarded by the Nigeria Air Force between 2014 and 2015, totalling $930.5m. Apparently, the EFCC asked Air Marshal Amosu and several others, who are still being detained over the money to refund the cash traced to them.
However, it appears that the former air force chief has refused to make any commitment to return any money or contract sums. He is said to have refused to sign an undertaking to refund money as a precondition for being granted administrative bail.
One EFCC source said: “As part of efforts to recover funds looted from the national security adviser's office, suspects are being asked to write an undertaking that they will return the money before granting them administrative bail. Among others, Amosu is being quizzed over $930m contracts by the Nigerian Air Force but the commission had not made the progress it desires because he has not signed any undertaking to return any money and has not provided the information the commission is looking for.”
Most of the questions put to Air Marshal Amosu centred on the procurement of two used Mi-24V helicopters instead of the recommended Mi-35M series at cost of $136.9m. Helicopters he bought were said to have been excessively priced and not operationally airworthy at the time of delivery.
A brand new unit of such helicopters costs about $30m and EFCC operatives are miffed at how he could have bought second hand ones at over twice the market price. Those who are still being detained by the EFCC include a colonel of the Nigerian Army, who served as the military assistant to a former national security adviser, the late General Andrew Azazi, Col Sambo Dasuki and an Austrian citizen Wolfgang Reinl.
Mr Reinl and the colonel are being detained in connection with funds deployed in the training of 750 members of a special forces team in Belarus. EFCC operatives believe that the Austrian spent just a fraction of the millions of dollars said to have been released for the training of the special forces.
One EFCC source added: “The federal government is focusing serious attention on retrieving the arms funds from those under probe. There are some people who are still in detention of the EFCC because they are not cooperating and such people have spent weeks there.
“The commission is not just keeping them, the commission is exploring avenues to get some of the funds back, so it is not just about prosecution. The operatives are also telling the high profile persons to sign an undertaking as a condition for their release but many of those detained may not have cooperated.”
ThisDay publisher Nduka Obaigbena, for instance, was not detained for a long time because he agreed, after 24 hours, to sign an undertaking to return the N670m he received from the office of the national security adviser. According to the EFCC source, this same pattern was applicable in other cases under investigation.
