Revelations have emerged about how the Ex-National Security Adviser Sambo Dasuki embezzled over 100 billion nairas meant to prosecute the war against the Boko Haram insurgency in the North East.
Sambo Dasuki, a retired Colonel, was appointed National Security Adviser by President Goodluck Jonathan in 2012 and served for three years before being removed by President Muhammadu Buhari in 2015.
A report by the Premium Times said the money was wired to a couple’s account in the United States of America at different intervals.
According to the report, Dasuki transferred millions of dollars to his family friend Robert Oshodin, a Nigerian furniture manufacturer based in the United States, and his wife, Mimie, during his three-year tenure.
The couple, in return, used part of the funds to pay a construction firm to build a house for Sambo Dasuki in Kaduna.
The report said Dasuki, barely two months after his appointment, approved the transfer of N270 million of public funds to his family friend Robert Oshodin, a Nigerian furniture manufacturer.
According to Bank documents reviewed by PREMIUM TIMES, the payments were made for “consulting services” and “special ops,” among others.
Documents also show that in mid-2014, the NSA’s office wired the couple $12 million in a single transfer for the “provision of counter-radicalisation campaign.”
“PREMIUM TIMES can confirm that during Mr Dasuki’s tenure as NSA, the couple bought 14 other properties in Los Angeles and McLean, Virginia, for almost $8 million, bringing their total real estate investments from 2012 to 2015 to nearly $24 million.
To this day, the couple owns properties in Los Angeles and McLean valued at $20 million, including the historic mansion near Hollywood that the EFCC tried to confiscate,” he said.
The report said the couple had only $50,000 as their account balance when they received the $12 million from Mr Dasuki’s office.
Investigators alleged Mr Dasuki and the couple conspired to embezzle the equivalent of over N100 billion from government coffers during the period when Boko Haram was terrorising the population in a campaign of gruesome violence.
