TheCable

A federal high court in Abuja has found Tony Omenyi, a former vice marshall of the Nigeria Air Force (NAF), guilty of diverting over N136 million meant for purchase of arms by the military.

Omenyi, a former managing director of the Aeronautical Engineering and Technical Services Limited, a subsidiary of NAF, is said to have received bribes from a contractor, SkyExperts Nigeria Limited, in 2014.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had in 2016 charged Omenyi alongside his company, Huzee Nigeria Limited, to court on a 3-count charge bordering on abuse of office and money laundering.  

While standing as witness during a trial that took place two years later, Goji Mohammed, an EFCC operative, told the court that in the course of investigation, suspicious financial transactions were linked to Omenyi and his company.

The case was adjourned till June 2018.

But in his ruling on Thursday, Nnamdi Dimgba, the presiding judge, sentenced Omenyi to seven years imprisonment on each of the three counts preferred against him.  

The judge however ruled that the sentences should run concurrently, meaning that the convict will serve them all at the same time.

He ordered that Huzee Nigeria Limited, Omenyi’s company and the sub-contractor through which SkyExperts Nigeria Limited had paid the ex-air chief, would be confiscated by the federal government.

Dimgba also ruled that the N62 million already recovered from the “shady arms deal” by the EFCC, would be be forfeited to government.