ECONOMIC and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) officials have raided the Abuja offices of former vice president Namadi Sambo and recovered a large sum of cash as part of their ongoing investigations into the Dasukigate arms scandal. In one of Nigeria’s biggest fraud cases ever, $2.1bn voted to purchase military weapons to enable the armed forces fight Boko Haram was diverted to private pockets. Several leading members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) have been arrested in connection with the scam after it emerged that they had received part of the largess.
Former national security adviser Col Sambo Dasuki, is at the centre of the scandal as he is alleged to have been the conduit through which the funds were distributed.
According to Col Dasuki, the money was paid out to several high-ranking PDP officials to fund its 2015 election campaign.
Vice president Sambo, the number two figure in the government of former president Dr Goodluck Jonathan, was alleged to have been a beneficiary of the looted arms funds too. One EFCC official said they raided the former vice president’s office located in Abuja’s Central Business District, next to the European High Commission’s Visa Processing Centre, opposite the National Defence College.
This latest raid is a follow-up to an earlier arrest of two of Vice president Sambo’s aides on January 11, who were both said to have made useful confessions. EFCC sources said vice president Sambo had sometime in December 2014 received the sum of N25m (£86,678) from Destra Investment, a company owned by the PDP publicity secretary Olisa Metuh, through one of his aides, Abba Dabo.
It was also alleged that the office of former vice president Sambo was receiving a monthly payment of N20m (£69,343) from the Office of the National Security Adviser. Acting on this evidence, EFCC operatives were said to have forced their way into his office and recovered various sensitive items, including an undisclosed amount of cash.