Court Sentences Ex-Air Force Chief To 7-year Imprisonment
The Abuja Division of the Federal High Court, on Thursday, sentenced a former Air Vice Marshal, Tony Omenyi, retd, to seven years imprisonment, following his complicity in money laundering.
The court found the former Air Force Chief who was hitherto the Managing Director of the Aeronautical Engineering and Technical Services Ltd, AETSL, guilty on a three-count charge the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, preferred against him.
EFCC alleged that the convict was involved in the illegal diversion of funds meant for the purchase of arms by the military.
It alleged that he had among other things, demanded and received the sum of N136milion as kick-back from a contractor that was engaged by the Nigerian Air Force.
He was said to have committed the fraud in 2014, using the account of a private firm, Huzee Nigeria Limited, which was also cited as a defendant in the matter.
Meanwhile, delivering judgment in the case on Thursday, trial Justice Nnamdi Dimgba, jailed the defendant for seven years on each of the three counts in the charge, stressing however that the sentence would run concurrently.
The court ordered that the firm through which the kickback was received from the contractor, SkyExperts Nigeria Limited, should be closed by the Federal Government Besides, the court directed that the sum of N62m which was earlier recovered from the convicts, by the EFCC, should be forfeited to the Government.
Justice Dimgba said he was satisfied that the prosecution successfully established a prima-facie criminal case against the Defendants.
The EFCC had on April 17, 2018, closed its case against the Defendants after it called a total of five witnesses that testified before the court.
The last prosecution witness, Mr. Goji Mohammed, who is an investigative officer at the EFCC, told the court that the agency had in the course of investigating the arms deal scandal, found out suspicious transactions that were linked to the former AVM and the firm.
EFCC said the investigation was triggered by a letter from the Office of the National Security Adviser dated December 9, 2015, alleging that the convict was operating suspicious accounts.
The convicted ex-AVM who also testified before the court, had in his defence, insisted that monies paid into his account by a contractor, were refunds of expenditures he had earlier carried out.
The court had on November 14, 2016, granted him bail in the sum of N60m with two sureties in the sum of N30m each.
