A prosecution witness and an Investigative Officer with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Bawa Usman Kaltungo, told a Special Offences Court in Ikeja, Lagos, on Friday that three aircraft belonging to Arik Air Nigeria Limited were robbed during the tenure of former Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) Managing Director, Ahmed Kuru.
He said this when he was been led in his evidence-in-chief by the led prosecution counsel Dr. Wahab Shittu, SAN, representing the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, in alleged N76 billion and $31.5 million fraud involving Kuru and four other defendants.
Kuru is standing trial alongside Kamilu Alaba Omokide, Captain Roy Ilegbodu, Union Bank of Nigeria Plc, and Super Bravo Limited before the court presiding by Justice Mojisola Dada.
The defendants face a six-count charge bordering on conspiracy, stealing, and abuse of office.
He said his team of investigator spent one week in Lagos where they saw and entered three aircrafts that was parked at Arik hanger ot the airport but met aircrafts which avionics and vital spare parts had been robed.
According to the EFCC Investigator, Union Bank did not give any loan to Arik as the loan was foreign credit facilities from HSBC and others which the airline operator was servicing until June 2010.
According to the investigation role played by the Union Bank was a local guarantor of the loan and entitled to interest on the transaction.
He further said Arik was not carried along when the loan was negotiated but a letter containing a meeting that was held by Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria, AMCON, and the Union Bank in London was recovered from Arik in the cause of the investigation.
Kaltungo further alleged that the transfer of three Arik aircraft to Super Bravo Limited, and subsequently to NG Eagle, a company linked to Kuru, was not supported by any deed of transfer or NCAA approval, the aircraft transfered to NG Eagle unsubstantiated.
“No evidence was found of any payment for the acquisition of the three aircraft,” he said, adding that NG Eagle later sold parts of Arik assets for N140 million, with no record that the proceeds were applied to offset any loan.
He also told the court that they found no effort to recover $950,000 paid to Olympus in Greece for an aircraft lease that was never delivered.
Several documents tendered by the prosecution were admitted as exhibits.
Count one reads: “That you, Union Bank Nigeria Plc, sometime in 2011 or thereabouts, in Lagos, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, with the intention of causing and/or inducing unwarranted sale of Arik Air loans and bank guarantees with Union Bank, made false statements to the Assets Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON), regarding Arik Air Limited’s performing loans, following which you transferred a bogus figure of N71, 000,000,000.00 (Seventy-One Billion Naira) to AMCON.”
Count two reads: “That you, Ahmed Lawal, Kuru, Kamilu Alaba Omokide as Receiver Manager of Arik Air Limited, and Captain Roy Ilegbodu, Chief Executive Officer of Arik Air Limited in Receivership, sometime in 2022 or thereabout, in Lagos, within the jurisdiction of this honourable court, fraudulently converted to the use of NG Eagle Limited the total sum of N4,900,000,000.00 (Four Billion Nine Hundred Million Naira only), property of Arik Air Limited”.
