Dasuki Gates and Metuh EFCC Making Things for Its Government

Dasuki Gates, one of the most (in) famous international scandal of last year involves the arms procurement deal scandal in Nigeria, which involved an embezzlement of over $2 billion. This was done from the office of the NSA (National Security Adviser) of Nigeria, allegedly led by Colonel Sambo Dasuki, a former NSA himself. The details of Dasuki Gates were unearthed by the presidential investigations committee, who prepared an interim report onthe arms procurement deal held under the administration of Good luck Jonathan.

The presidential investigations committee noticed that almost approximately N643.8 billion was done over the allotted budget. On top of this, another extra spending of over $2.2 billion was conducted in a foreign currency by the Good luck Jonathan administration. When this was revealed, the scandal was termed Dasuki Gates since it was done under leadership of Sambo Dasuki, formed NSA. The initial investigation found that over $2 billion were set aside for the procuring arms and other means in order to combat the rising military and Islamic insurgents in the country. However, a big chunk of the disbursed amount was diverted and used to sponsorthe re-election efforts for Good luck Jonathan, the former President of Nigeria.

At the heart of these Dasuki Gates is Sambo Dasuki, the now retired colonel,who held the position of Nigeria's National Security Adviser in the previous term. When these investigations came to light, Colonel Dasuki was arrested by the DSS (Department of State Services) on December 1 of last year. He was then transferred to the custody of the ECC (Economic and Financial Crimes) the very next day.

In addition to Colonel Dasuki, there are a couple of other prominent names accused of being a part of the Dasuki Gates. These include Olisa Metuh, the former spokesperson of People's Democratic Party, as well as Alex Badeh, the former Chief of Defense Staff.The trial for both of these was to be presided over by Justice Okon Abang, and scheduled to be done on the same day, ie. March 24 of this year.

While Alex Badeh's connection to the Dasuki Gates is his involvement in laundering of around N 3.9 billion, Olisa Metuh has his own Metuh EFCC spat going on. The Economic and Financial Crimes (EFCC) has accused Metuh laundering a sum of around N400 million which he denies, thus creating a new Metuh EFCC issue.

 

The Dasuki Gates and Metuh-EFCC issue aren't the only developments in this arms fraud case, there is also the involvement of Mr. Nicholas Ashinze in this. Ashinzeis the former special assistant to Colonel Dasuki, and has been detained by the EFCC. But he claims that his detention is illegal, and is now planning to sue the EFCC for N500 million for illegal detention.