The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, has arrested a serving senior officer of the Air Force in connection with the $2.1billionn arms purchase scandal.
It was learnt that the officer, Air Vice Marshal R.A. Ojuawo, was arrested by operatives of the EFCC at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, on his way out of the country.
A top source told Punch that Ojuawo was arrested while accompanying the Chief of Defence Staff, General Gabriel Olonisakin, to a meeting of the United States Africa Command in Germany on Sunday.
The source said, “The event, which they were going to attend, was about the activities of the military in the fight against insurgency. AVM Ojuawo was the one that was supposed to deliver the keynote address on behalf of the Nigerian Air Force.
“However, a team of EFCC detectives stormed the airport and refused to allow him travel. All the senior military officers present pleaded with the detectives but they refused to listen. We explained to them that we had invested a lot of time and energy in putting together the report that Ojuawo was supposed to present.
“The Air Force had done feasibility studies on how to rehabilitate Internally Displaced Persons and was going to present the report in Germany.
“We promised them that immediately we were done with the event, Ojuawo would return and visit the EFCC but the detectives said he was a flight risk. How could he flee when he was in the entourage of the CDS?”
A source in the NAF said Ojuawo was the Director of Operations when Badeh was the Chief of Air Staff.
