An investigation initiated by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission on a private jet which was loaded with money on February 15, 2019, on the e
An investigation initiated by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission on a private jet which was loaded with money on February 15, 2019, on the eve of the aborted presidential and national assembly elections, has been stopped and the commission barred from pursuing it.
The plane according to Punch, which was billed to fly to Ilorin, Kwara State, from Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Ikeja, Lagos failed to take off due to the weight of the money on board. Multiple sources said the EFCC operatives thereafter stormed the plane after a tip-off from some people about the cargo. They demanded the source of the money, its owner and destination.
The crew was said to have informed the operatives that the money was meant for election expenses in Kwara State, but the detectives reportedly insisted on taking away the cash haul.
“The EFCC operatives interrogated the crew and they claimed they were part of the government. They also gave a code which they assumed the operatives would understand, but the detectives insisted on taking away the money. However, a phone call came from the Presidential Villa ordering them to hands off the matter and clear off from the scene. Shortly after, armed soldiers took over the scene and the money was transferred into another plane which took off by 10pm that night.”
Responding to questions about the jet, the acting EFCC spokesman, Tony Orilade said, “On the plane-load of cash you asked about, I saw the pictures and we know that these pictures are things that can be manipulated to achieve the purposes by their producers. All the reports from the field are being reviewed and we shall come out with our position once it is ready.”
Asked about the commission’s intentions to investigate the movement of huge cash in two bullion vans by a leader of the All Progressives Congress, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, on the eve of the elections, the EFCC spokesman said the anti-graft commission had successfully curbed vote-buying in the elections and prevented a repeat of the incidents in Ekiti and Osun governorship elections.
“You will agree with me that to a large extent, we were able to curtail vote-buying with our men conspicuously positioned at polling booths across the country in the course of the elections,” he said.
