When Air Marshal Alex Subundu Badeh was appointed Chief of Defence Staff with effect from 16 January 2014, Air Vice Marshal Adesola Nunayon Amosu became Chief of Air Staff. President Buhari retired Chief of Air Staff, Air
Marshal Adesola Amosu, with effect from July 31, 2015. Subsequent EFCC investigations showed that Air Marshal Amosu had converted the Air Force account into his personal wallet in collaboration with retired Chief of Accounts and Budgeting, Air Vice Marshal
Jacob Adigun and a retired NAF Director of Finance and Budget, Air Commodore Olugbenga Gbadebo. The trio were accused of having diverted 21 billion naira from the NAF into their private accounts. When the trial of theft against Amosu and his colleagues by
the EFCC began in April 2016, the accused requested for plea bargaining. As for Amosu, the EFCC revealed that the sum of $140,000 was recovered in one of his houses and he had voluntarily returned N2.3 billion naira through two bank drafts worth N2 billion
and N300 million respectively. Besides, N381 million he transferred into the bank account of his wife had been recovered. He had surrendered to the EFCC 28 properties and three vehicles. As for Air Commodore Olugbenga Gbadebo, the EFCC said that it had recovered
100 million naira from him. Routinely, court granted bails to the trio and their case has since been put into coma. Another arm of the Nigerian Armed Forces is the Nigerian Naval Force. Already on 16 November 2009, the online Nigerian Newspaper, National Daily,
carried the headline : How Naval Officers Aid Bunkering, Own Pipelines, Refineries in S/Africa! Merchant Navy Boss Vows To Expose Cartel. The Naval boss in question was Director General and Commandant of the Nigeria Merchant Navy, Commodore Allen Benson
Edema. The role played by the Nigerian Navy in crude oil bunkering (stealing) is well documented for those interested. Despite earning huge amount of money from criminal thefts of Nigeria's crude oil by Naval officers, appropriated funds by the government
for the Naval Force were tampered with by high ranking naval officers as investigations after Buhari took over the presidency in 2015 confirmed.
From 2012 to 16 January 2014, the Chief of Naval Staff was Admiral Dele Joseph Ezeoba. He was retired by President Goodluck Jonathan during the reshuffle of Service Chiefs because of their incapacities to handle Boko Haram
and other security challenges in the country then. When Buhari became President in 2015, the EFCC found that a company called Chukwuka Onwuchekwa and Aquila Leasing Ltd had received a total sum of N2.387 billion from the Nigerian Navy account without any contract.
It was discovered that the sole signatory to the account of Aquila Leasing Ltd. was Admiral Dele Joseph Ezeoba. By the time the EFCC discovered the diverted N2.387 billion from Navy account to Aquila in 2017, only N1.825 billion remained. On Thursday, 6 April
2017, a Federal High Court, granted permanent forfeiture of N1.825 billion to the Federal Government. Rear Admiral Usman O. Jibrin took over from Rear Admiral Dele Joseph Ezeoba as Chief of Naval Staff on 16 January 2014. On 13 March 2014, the Chief of Naval
Staff instructed Admirals Bala Mshelia and Shehu Ahmadu of the Navy Budget and Account Sections to transfer from the account of Naval Engineering Services the sum of N600 million to the Diamond Bank account of a company called
*Habour Bay International Limited*, owned by Usman O. Jibrin, his wife, Lami (as the Director) and his son, Abdulkadir. The six-hundred million naira transferred into Diamond Bank account of Habour Bay International Limited was used to buy a property
(House) at No. 7 Colorado Close, Maitana Abuja and the paper ownership of the property was prepared in the name of the private company owned by Jibrin and his family. On 14 November 2016, the Ex-Chief of Naval Staff, Rear Admirals Usman O. Jibrin, Bala Mshelia
and Shehu Ahmadu were charged to court for N600 million fraud but the case has since been pending after the accused naval officers had been granted bail. As late as Monday, 24 February 2020, another ex-naval Director of accounts, Rear Admiral Tahir Yusuf,
was reported by Nation online to have forfeited N500 million to the Federal government on the initiative of EFCC's court action. Nigeria's Naval Officers were good at navigating naval funds into their private accounts.
The Nigerian Army is the main thrust in the defence of Nigeria against internal insurgents and foreign aggressors. That a small ragtag group like Boko Haram insurgent could hold a whole Nigerian army into stalemate in the
21st Century must be a mystery. But the mystery was soon solved by the EFCC and other investigating agencies that exposed senior Army Officers for treasonable stealing of Army funds. When Boko Haram was still a foetus, President Goodluck Jonathan, on 8 September
2010, appointed Lieutenant General Azubuike Onyeabor Ihejirika as Chief of Army Staff (COAS). Under his command Boko Haram grew wings and on 2 December 2013 it successfully launched all out attack on Composite Group Air Force Base in Maiduguri, without being
stopped by the Nigerian Army. President Jonathan was not a military man and, even if he were, the overall responsibility of making the soldiers combat ready was with the Chief Of Army Staff, Lieutenant General Ihejirika. Thinking that inability of the Army
to wipe out Boko Haram militarily was due to inefficiency of the COAS, President Jonathan retired General Ihejirika and replaced him with Major General Kenneth Tobiah Jacob Minimah on 16 January 2014 who was also retired by President Buhari at the end of July
2015 and replaced with Lieutenant General Tukur Y. Buratai. By the time Buhari came into power, Boko Haram was in control of 50 thousand square kilometres landmass in the Northeast of Nigeria which they declared a Carliphate. Every Nigerian wondered how Nigeria's
soldiers that fought gallantly in Congo to restore peace there, fought and defeated rebel forces in Liberia and Siera Leone, could be so helpless in face of a small rebel group like Boko Haram. However, subsequent investigations showed that money set aside
for purchase of Arms, recruitment and training of combat soldiers had been stolen by the top echelons of the Army, including the Chief of Army Staff. Lieutenant General Azubuike Onyeabor Ihejirika was the Chief of Army Staff (COAS) when two companies,
Chok Ventures Ltd and Integrated Equipment Services Ltd were exclusively awarded contracts between March 2011 and December 2013 to procure various types of Toyota and Mitsubishi vehicles worth over three billion naira (really N3,658,293,846.94) for the
Nigerian Army without any competitive bidding. Although the investigators could not find any credible evidence of delivery of the vehicles
Chok Ventures Ltd and Integrated Equipment Services Ltd were fully paid 3 billion, 658 million, 293 thousand, 846 naira and 94 kobo based on job completion certificate authenticated by the then Army Chief of Logistics, Major General D. D. Kitchener.
Investigators reported that the analyses of the various bank accounts of the two companies involved in the purchase of vehicles for the army showed transfers of money to individuals related to Ihejirika, the Chief Of Army Staff. Various sums of money were
transferred to the acounts of Raymond Ihejirika, Nkechi Ihejirika, Ndubuisi Ihejirika, Orji Ihejirika, Kingsley Ihejirika and Naomi Ihejirika. The amounts of money shared and transferred on different occassions into the accounts of named relatives of General
Ihejirika were N115 million, $132,000, €16,000 and £44,000. Who owned Chok Ventures Ltd and Integrated Equipment Services Ltd?
The investigators found out that the two companies were owned by a person called
Chinedu Onyekwere who happened to be brother-in-law to the Chief of Army Staff, Lietenant General Azubuike Onyeabor Ihejirika. Early in April 2018, the EFCC announced that retired General Ihejirika had surrendered N29 million out of the N4.5 billion
he was alleged to have stollen from the Nigerian Army. The court is yet to resolve his case, although he has since been granted bail.
As previously stated, Lieutenant General Kenneth Tobiah Jacob Minimah took over as Chief of Army Staff (COAS) from General Ihejirika on 16 January 2014. Two months after resuming office, Boko Haram plundered Giwa Military Barracks
in broad daylight. On 14 April 2014, Boko Haram thumbed the nose of the Nigerian Army when the insurgent in a midnight raid on Chibok abducted over 300 school girls, in an emergency declared area where dusk to dawn curfew was in force, and transported them
in convoys to Sambisa forest 60 kilometres away. On September 1, 2014, Boko Haram captured Bama the second largest city in Borno State, after Maiduguri and in October 2014, Boko Haram captured Mubi the hometown of Chief of Defence Staff, Air Marshal Badeh,
in Adamawa State. While Boko Haram was ravaging towns and cities in the Northeast, the Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant General Kenneth Tobiah Jacob Minimah, was planning how to ravage the bank account of the Nigerian Army. Thus on 17 November 2014 he registered
a Company named CONELLA SERVICES LIMITED. On the same day, he awarded a contract to
Conella Services Limited for the procurement of 72 various arms and ammunition that included MRAP vehicles and Mi-17 helicopters at the cost of 125 million,179 thousand, 299 dollars and 10 cents ($125,179,299.10).
On the same day, 17 November 2014, General Minimah saw to it that the sum of
36 million, 996 thousand and 530 dollars ($36,996,530) were paid into the account of Conella Services Ltd. Then on 15 April 2015,the sum of
2 billion, 209 million, 582 thousand and 296 naira (N2, 209, 582, 296) was paid into the bank account of Conella Services Ltd. In April 2018, EFCC disclosed that it had recovered N4.8 billion in cash and property from General Minimah out of N13.9 billion
he was alleged to have stolen from the Nigerian Army. He was granted bail and the last time I read about his being in court was 26 February 2018 when the EFCC told the court that General Minimah had returned N1.7 billion in two tranches to the Federal Government.
While Service Chiefs and high ranking officers of the Nigerian Armed Forces busied themselves with shooting defence funds into their private bank accounts through fictitious companies between 2010 and 2015, Boko Haram had killed
over 20,000 civilians and ill-equipped soldiers in addition to over a million displaced Nigerians forced to dwell in refugee camps inside Nigeria. Yet, salaries and special allowances given to Nigeria's Service Chiefs are among the highest in the world because
they are so structured to induce maximum patriotism from military officers. Instead of being patriotic, Nigerian Service Chiefs committed high treason by facilitating the expansion of Boko Haram insurgency in Nigeria and diverting funds meant for, purchase
of weapons, recruitments and training of soldiers into their private pockets for which they ought to have been Court Martialed. Rather than being militarily Court Martialed, they have been charged for thefts in civil courts where they have been granted bails,
after which they requested for plea bargaining to return part of the looted defence funds. The only high ranking officer that got a semblance of justice for his crime was ex-Air Vice Marshal and former Managing Director of Aeronautical Engineering and Technical
Services Ltd (AETSL), Tonny Omenyi, for receiving kickbacks from a contractor with NAF. EFCC had alleged that ex-Air Vice Marshal Tonny Omenyi transferred a total sum of N136.3 million, between 8 January 2014 and 18 November 2014, into the bank account of
his private companies, Huzee Nigeria Ltd and Sky Experts Nigeria Ltd, domiciled at First City Monument Bank. On 28 February 2019, Justice Nnamdi Dimgba sentenced him to seven years imprisonment in addition to forfeiting N62 million recovered from his account
by the EFCC. What happened to the rest N74.3 million has not been accounted for. Otherwise the new trend is for EFCC to ask for forfeiture of discovered stolen public funds by Nigerian military officers and civil servants. Let's look at an instance to illustrate
how forfeiture phenomenon works. Major General Emmanuel Atewe, the former Commander of the Joint Task Force (JTF) in Delta, in collusion with the ex-Director General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Patrick Akpobolokemi,
as well as one Kime Enzogu and one Josephine Otuaga, were charged at a Federal High Court, Lagos for stealing and laundering N8.5 billion released for operation Pulo Shield. The EFCC investigators later discovered that the four accused had used six companies
namely, Jagan Limited, Jagan Trading Company Ltd, Jagan Global Services Ltd, Al-Nald Ltd, Paper Warehouse Ltd, Eastpoint Integrated Services Ltd and De-Newlink Integrated Services Ltd, to steal and launder the N8.5 billion. Nevertheless, it was not until 26
March 2020 that Justice Mohammed Liman of Federal High Court, Lagos, granted temporary forfeiture of N293 million, 6 parcels of land and 30,000 MTN shares worth N170,350,000 from the accused to the federal government. The total value of the temporary forfeiture
was less than the stolen N8.5 billion and nothing has been heard of the case after 26 March 2020. Of course the culprits have since 2017 been freed on bails and, following Court's praxises, the case may never be listed for further hearing. It was after Buhari
assumed presidency, 29 May 2015, that Nigerians came to know how previous Service Chiefs and senior military officers plundered defence funds and plunged the country into insecurity in the hands of insurgents and other criminals. Knowing about the thefts of
previous Armed Forces Officers without real punishments is useless because where there is no punishment for crime there can be no deterrence. That is why changing of Service Chiefs by President Jonathan in January 2014 turned out to be continuation of the
plunder of defence funds by the new Service Chiefs which perhaps continues under the current Service Chiefs. (To be continued)