The President, Muhammadu Buhari has approved the probe of 54 persons including former Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. O.A. Ihejirika (rtd) and Lt.- Gen. K.T.J. Minimah (rtd) over their alleged involvement in the arms procurement scandal.
The move by the president followed the submission of the Third Interim Report put together by the Presidential Committee on the Audit of Defence Equipment Procurement in the Armed Forces from 2007 to 2015.
In a statement signed by the president of the committee, AVM Jon Ode (rtd) who released the report on Thursday, he revealed that 18 serving and retired military personnel, 12 serving and retired public officials and 24 Chief Executive Officers of companies were indicted in the arms deal scandal.
He said: “All were either accounting officers or played key roles in the Nigerian Army procurement activities during the period under review”.
According to the statement, those listed for further investigations include former Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. O.A. Ihejirika (rtd) and Lt.- Gen. K.T.J. Minimah (rtd); former Minister of State for Foreign Affairs II, Dr. Nurudeen Mohammed and three former Permanent Secretaries in the Ministry of Defence – Mr. Bukar Goni Aji, Mr. Haruna Sanusi and Me. E.O, Oyemomi.
The list further indicted the following CEOs; Col. Olu Bamgbose (rtd) of Bamverde
Limited; Mr. Amity Sade of Doiyatec Comms Limited and DYI Global Services and Mr. Edward Churchill of Westgate Global Trust Limited.
The Committee further revealed that the total amount spent for procurement and operations within the period were N185,843,052,564.30 and $685,349,692.49 respectively.