The source said the money was part of the money budgeted for the procurement of weapons.
Last week, the commission seized houses belonging to Gbadebo; the immediate past Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Adesola Amosu (retd.); and the Chief of Accounts and Budgeting of the Nigerian Air Force, Air Vice Marshal J.B. Adigun, all worth about N5bn.
The source revealed that after sealing off the houses, the EFCC continued to trace the money with a view to recovering the sums.
The source added, “After we sealed some properties last week, we continued to grill the three officers. Gbadebo finally confessed to diverting N84m into his company account. The money was swiftly recovered.
“We have also seized a large fish processing company belonging to Adigun. He also manufactures fish feeds, which he sells to end users.”
The source debunked reports making the rounds that the anti-graft agency recovered $1m from Amosu’s Badagry home when it was searched.
He explained that about $117,000 was recovered from the home of the ex-NAF boss.
The source added, “There have been reports that $1m was recovered from a soak away in Amosu’s Badagry home. This is not true.
“The actual amount recovered was about $117,000 and it was kept in a safe in the house and not in a soak away. The money is currently in our exhibit room. We also recovered N200, 000 in cash from the house.”
Explaining the modus operandi of the suspects, the EFCC detective explained that the suspects usually used their wives to carry out the shady deals.
He said before transferring money, the Air Force officers would use third parties to set up companies and bank accounts, to which their wives would be signatories.
It was learnt that the military officers would then make phantom transactions and transfer money into the bank accounts of the companies while their wives would take possession of the sums.
Punch
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