Former Aide De Camp (ADC) to the late National Security Adviser General Andrew Owoye Azazi, Lt Col Robert Ahangba, has been jailed for seven years for N150million fraud.
The Nigerian Army General Court Martial (GCM) yesterday sentenced Ahangba to seven years imprisonment for using the name of Azazi to collect N150 million from the former Bayelsa State Governor Timipre Sylva to secure his second term. The court, chaired by the President of the GCM, Brigadier General Edward Nze and the Judge Advocate, Captain Chukwudi Okonkwo, also ordered the Military Police and Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to ensure the amount is recovered and paid back to Bayelsa state government.
After sitting for 10 hours, the court found the accused, with service number N9827 guilty of two counts of the four he was charged with. He was charged for obtaining money under false pretence, disobedience to standing order and conduct of prejudice to service discipline.
Nze said as a rule, ex-convicts don’t serve in the Armed Forces and so if the superior authorities enforce the decision of the court, it automatically means that the officer has been dismissed. The entire sum to be returned, according to the court, was N142, 345, 654 “in accordance with Subsection 2 of Section 174 of the Armed Forces Act and laws of the Federation of Nigeria.
On the monies to be returned, the court listed the sum as N25 million, N30 million and N29 million to be retrieved from Union Bank account and N48 million deposited at First Bank in the account name of Roberta Nigerian Limited.
The sum of N11 million was also traced to Living Faith Church, which was paid in two instalments: N9 million and N2 million as well as other monies given to some messengers. However, Nze said the decision of the court was subject to superior authority, which in this case is the Army Headquarters.