The
Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has commenced investigation
into an alleged arms deal worth $200m involving a Nigerian businessman
and the government of Ukraine.
Investigations
on Friday revealed that the $200m had been paid to the Ukrainian
authorities for the airlifting of arms to Nigeria.
The
businessman handled the deal for the Federal Government a few years ago
and that the payment was made through him to Ukraine.
It was
alleged that the businessman, who had a memorandum of understanding with
the Ukrainian authorities, decided to put the deal on hold because he
was being owed some money by the past administration in Nigeria.
A top
operative of the commission said on Friday that the businessman whose
identity was not disclosed was picked up by operatives of the commission
last week and has since been kept in custody.
He was
among the 22 high profile personalities being interrogated by a 27-man
Task Force set up by the Chairman of the EFCC, Mr. Ibrahim Magus, to
look into the $2.1 billion arms procurement under President Goodluck
Jonathan.
It was
learnt that the suspect admitted before the EFCC operatives that the
arms had not been brought into the country from the Eastern European
country.
He was
also said to have told his investigators that the arms transaction ran
into hitches when a top military figure (now retired) came into the
scene.
The source
said that the suspect mentioned the name of a service chief and a lady
secretary in relation with the deal during the interrogation.
It was however not stated whether those mentioned in relation to the $200m Ukrainian Arms deal would be interrogated or not.
The source
stated, “A lot of things are happening here. The task force is
detaining a businessman who was involved in an arms deal involving $200m
million.
“The man
had a Memorandum of Understanding with the Ukrainian authorities to
supply arms and ammunition of that amount to the Federal Government.
‘The man told our operatives that even though the full money has been paid, the arms are still left in Ukraine.
“He is a
civilian, a businessman involved in the deal; he is insisting that
Nigeria must pay him a particular amount of money before he would give
Ukraine the directive to release the arms. He actually facilitated the
deal.
“Upon interrogation, he mentioned a top military officer and his secretary in relation to the deal.
“I cannot
tell you whether the commission will invite them or when they would be
invited; it is likely that they might be invited since their names have
come up during the interrogation of the principal suspect.”
Our
correspondent could not get the Head of Media and Publicity of the EFCC,
Mr. Wilson Uwujaren, to comment on the story as the calls to his mobile
telephone indicated that it was either switched off or in an area
outside network coverage.
Also, Uwujaren had not responded to a text message on the issue as of the time of filing this report by 6pm on Saturday.
The
Ukrainian embassy in Nigeria could not be reached for comment on Friday.
Calls made to the mission’s official line did not elicit any response.
Investigation
further revealed that there is a strong likelihood that the EFCC might
invite two former service chiefs to face the Arms Probe Task Force.
It was
learnt that the names of the two service chiefs have been thrown up
repeatedly during the various sessions of interrogation by the Task
Force.
“The
people being interrogated have been mentioning two service chiefs. We
don’t take that as an indictment, we don’t jump to conclusions.
“There is that likelihood that they might be summoned to say what they know about the $2.1bn arms deal,” the source said.
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