BEVERLY HILLS, February 22, (THEWILL) – The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), on Wednesday, interrogated a former Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Azubuike Ihejirika (retd.), for about seven hours over his alleged role in the $2.1bn arms scam.
Gen. Ihejirika was also asked to account for the transfer of N115m, $132,000, €16,000 and £44,0000 to his relatives named Raymond Ihejirika, Nkechi Ihejirika, Ndubuisi Ihejirika, Orji Ihejirika and Kingsley Ihejirika who allegedly did no job.
He was also questioned for allegedly awarding N3, 658,293’846.94 contracts to two companies owned by his brother-in-law, Chinedu Onyekwere and suspicious transactions to the tune of N845,600,000 and $3,450,619 made from Defence Industry Corporation of Nigeria’s (DICON’s) domiciliary and Naira accounts.
It was learnt that Ihejirika arrived at the EFCC office in Abuja around 11am brought by a Military Police officer and accompanied by his lawyer.
He admitted that contracts were awarded to his brother-in-law based on emergency needs of the Army. He said the contracts were duly and satisfactorily executed by Chok Ventures Ltd and Integrated Equipment Services Ltd owned by his brother-in-law.
He has also requested to go back and gather more information, expressing unawareness as regards some documents and questions put to him by investigators.”
THEWILL recalls that the retired general and his successor, Lt. Gen. Kenneth Minimah (retd.), as well as some retired air force and navy chiefs had been indicted by the Committee on Audit of Defence Equipment Procurement in 2015.
While the retired air force chiefs, Air Marshal Mohammed Umar (retd.), Air Chief Marsha Alex Badeh (retd.); and Air Marshal Adesola Amosu (retd.), are all facing trial in several courts, no former army chief has been arraigned by the EFCC but the EFCC had already seized properties including hotels worth over N1.2bn from Ihejirika in 2016.
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