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.
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