EFCC Discover N600m Arms Fraud,Arrests Air Vice Marshall Atawodi

          

The $2billion arms deal investigation has lead to the discovery of another N600m arms fraud, leading the Economic and Financial Crime Commission to arrest Air Vice Marshal Salihu Atawodi rtd,a Former Chairman Presidential  Implementation Committee on Marine Safety over what was describe by a source as a case of Conspiracy,abuse of office and misappropriation of public fund.


He is alleged to have defrauded the Federal Government of Nigeria to the sum of N600m through dubious contract awarded to procure Military Boats.a contract he awarded to Alhaji Rabiu's Hypertech Nigeria Limited,the contract fully paid but the Boats were never supplied.
AVM Atawodi, who retired recently was has been on the radar of the EFCC and was finally brought into EFCC custody Wednesday for Interrogation.

Below is a 2013 written testimony by Rabiu Hassan about monies meant for arms purchase are treated by Officials according to SaharaReporters .

EVIDENCE ON AVM ATAWODI (RTD)

I, Rabiu Hassan, hereby confirm, re-assert and declare that it is absolutely true that the N620, 910,000.00 paid to me by AVM Atawodi and credited into my account on the 28th November, 2011 with A/C. No. 1830010246947901- HYPERTECH NIGERIAN LTD was indeed and in fact mostly converted into USD$ which AVM Atawodi collected and diverted for his private use. EXHIBIT A here attached is an extract from the official statement of account detailing the transactions carried out by me, the dates, specific amounts, the names of the beneficiaries and the Bureaux De Change that I used to purchase USD$ which, with the exception of the last item on the extract, were mostly delivered by me personally to AVM Atawodi. The Extract statement from ECOBANK speaks for itself even though it excluded some of the transactions carried out through a micro-finance Bank to purchase USD$ for the same purpose. The extract also does not contain details of some direct withdrawals by me and or through other parties, all of which were for and at the behest of AVM Atawodi (please find here Exhibit A 1 which is from the original statement of account showing those items omitted in Exhibit A above). What is fundamentally proven by the extract from ECOBANK is the fact that monies from the N620,910,000.00 paid by PICOMSS were at various times and in varying quantum withdrawn or used to purchase USD$.

Exhibits A & A1 on their own do not prove that the Dollars so converted were actually collected by AVM Atawodi, it may be argued.

But I have three (3) living witnesses that could testify and (two) 2 have indeed testified, one via sworn court affidavit and the other in witness statement as being privy to the fact that AVM Atawodi did collect the monies. In fact, on the 1st occasion, one of the witnesses was actually physically present.
These 3 witnesses are:?(a) The Bank branch manager-Ecobank Plc.?(b) Jingina Mohammed – My driver and a witness to the
actual exchange of the 1st sum of USD$ 1.3 Million given to AVM Atawodi.
(c) Mr. Roland (second name unknown to me) a protégé, close confidant and right hand man of AVM Atawodi, who in fact lives with the Atawodi family in the family home at Maitama, Abuja, for very many years and is, as far as I know, still living there.
Mr. Roland took physical possession of the money USD$ 1.3million at the car park of the IBB Golf Club and on the instructions of AVM Atawodi.
From the very beginning, I was fully aware that the N620 million was meant to be stolen because Atawodi made it very clear to me that he was in a hurry to get some money and service some judges handling the various litigations that followed the outcome of the Kogi State gubernatorial election disputes in which Atawodi was a candidate. Atawodi also confided in me the need to service some members of the National Assembly working for his bill before the NASS for the conversion of PICOMSS from an AD-HOC Committee into a full government agency.

I am no saint myself in this matter. On Atawodi’s instruction, I took USD$400,000 for myself. I have freely confessed to this fact in my statements to the SSS and EFCC investigators.

The transfer to my account was done without any documentation whatsoever. I never ever presented any invoice or demand for payment. I did not sign any payment voucher nor was there any contract or agreement between PICOMSS and myself

as at the time the money was credited into my account.?For the record the N620,910, 000.00 paid by PICOMSS is not USD $ 4.4 million as reported by The Nation newspaper. As at the 28/11/2011 the open market value of the Naira to Dollar was at N167.5 – USD $ 1, which means the N620,910,000 was worth USD $3,760,925.37. EXHIBIT A1 also shows that Mohammed Mustapha of Hypertech Nig. Limited received the sum of N10 million from the N620 million largesse. M. Mustapha should step forward and tell Nigerians what the N10 million he collected was for. For the record, M. Mustapha was a direct

beneficiary and part and parcel of the stolen N620 million.