The four Ex-Service Chiefs who served in the Goodluck Jonathan’s presidency will soon be invited for questioning by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission as it has emerged that a whopping sum of N1trillion has been traced to the accounts allegedly owned by them.
The ex-service chiefs are the former Chief of Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshal Alex Badeh; former Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. Kenneth Minimah; former Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Usman Jibrin; and former Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Adesola Amosu.
They were sacked on July 13, 2015 by President Muhammadu Buhari, almost two months after he took over from Mr Jonathan.
According to reports, the discovery was made by the 27-man task force investigating the $2.1billion arms procurement scandal under the former National Security Adviser, NSA over the weekend.
The $2.1 billion is an amount budgeted for procurement of arms by the immediate past administration to fight the Boko Haram insurgency in the North East.
It was gathered that the task force investigating the arms deals in conjunction with the financial intelligence unit of the EFCC found about N1trillion of the missing money in the accounts of four former service chiefs. The money was allegedly paid into the military officers’ accounts domiciled in four new generation banks.
It was further learnt that the affected service chiefs would soon be invited to explain all they know about the money found in their bank accounts as well as their involvements in the arms deals.
The former service chiefs were those in the Air Force, Navy and Army.
Apart from the Service chiefs, it was further gathered that more retired and serving military officers are also being investigated by the anti-graft agency and those found culpable would be invited for questioning.
A highly placed source at the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission said “The commission has traced N400million to the account of a serving security operative. The shocking discovery was made just before the New Year.
“Efforts are still being made to trace other transactions. The motive is to go after some of these funds that are in private accounts.”
Recently, the EFCC picked up a serving Colonel and a German citizen in connection with the ongoing investigation into arms procured.
Sources said the duo are currently detained in connection with the training of 750 Special Forces in Belarus in 2015.