The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, have stumbled on an account said to belong to an army officer with N400 million traced to the slush funds just as the ongoing probe of the disbursement of the $2.1 billion arms cash by the Office of the former National Security Adviser, ONSA, Col. Sambo Dasuki (rtd), is leading to more startling revelations.
A top source in the Commission confirmed last night that the top operatives probing the disbursement of the arms cash, which is now the subject of prosecution in a High Court.
The account, domiciled in a third generation commercial bank, had been frozen by the EFCC and efforts made to track the suspect and others yet to be summoned.
It was gathered that beyond the army officer, whose name was still being kept secret to avoid raising eyebrows, the EFCC had identified other military personnel, who had at one time or the other drawn money from the ONSA and was keen on getting them to account for it.
A source said that it was as a result of the discovery of the names of the military personnel that the EFCC formally wrote to the Defence Headquarters to release the identified officers and men to the Commission for questioning.
An officer with the rank of a colonel from Delta State, said to have served as a PA to the embattled ex-NSA, had already been arrested and detained by the EFCC for over three weeks over the discovery that he took huge sums meant for arms procurement.
He is said to have been saddled with procurement under the former NSA and had used his position to acquire stupendous wealth, including the acquisition of imposing buildings in choice areas of the FCT.
A top operative of the commission had, on Monday, said the commission had written to the Defence Headquarters and the heads of the three services of the Armed Forces for the release of some personnel needed by the anti-graft agency to shed light on their roles in arms procurement in the past administration.
The Defence Headquarters on Monday had said the military would not tolerate corruption, which it noted had retarded the development of the country.
The Acting Director, Defence Information, Brigadier General Rabe Abubakar, has stated that the military was fully in support of the Federal Government’s campaign against corruption.