Indications emerged at the weekend that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), as part of ongoing investigation into the sharing of money for the procurement of arms in the war against insurgency, is exploring the possibility of using former president Goodluck Jonathan’s aide-de-camp, Col. Ojogbane Adegbe, as a prosecution witness against some suspects.
Adegbe was arrested by EFCC penultimate week after his name reportedly came up among those involved in the sharing of money to some of the beneficiaries being investigated.
An informed source said EFCC has proposed to cut a deal with Adegbe to use him as prosecution witness so that he might be saved from dismissal from the army.
“He has not agreed to be a prosecution witness. He’s insisting that he doesn’t know anything about the money-for-arms procurement; that he was only an aide and that he carried out duties as assigned by his principal,” the source said.
The source further said that the plan to use him as witness however does not foreclose the possibility of his prosecution if he is found to be guilty of any wrongdoing in the course of the investigation.
The EFCC did not confirm the information, as the commission’s spokesman, Wilson Uwujaren, was unavailable for comments on phone. A short message sent to his mobile phone was also not replied at the time of going to press.
Adegbe was picked up in Lagos by military personnel from the Directorate of Military Intelligence on arrival from UK where he was attending a course at the National defence College (NDC).
The former ADC was reported to have been summoned back from UK and after he was picked up at the airport in Lagos, flown to Mogadishu Cantonment in Abuja, where he was grilled by some senior military officers before he was later handed over to the EFCC.
The arrest of Adegbe and other military officers is said to have marked the beginning of investigation of the military component of the ongoing arms scandal.
Following his arrest, there emerged reports that he had threatened to squeal on his former boss and that if he does, the weight of the information would cause the country to collapse, but Adegbe in a statement by his solicitors, denied ever making such threats.
According to him, his recent visit to the office of the EFCC had nothing to do with the arms scandal.
In a statement by Chief Ogwu Onoja, SAN, Adegbe explained that contrary to claims that he was arrested, the EFCC wrote the military authority to invite him for questioning with respect to an ongoing investigation to clarify certain allegations made against him and that the military authority invited him back to Nigeria, which he willingly came in and reported to the office of the provost marshal in Abuja on February 10, 2016.
“Due to his late arrival and the inability of the Army to complete their documentation, he was asked to report to the Garrison Mess in Mogadishu Cantonment in line with military tradition till the next day. Upon completion of the necessary paper work, he was escorted to the EFCC where he wrote his statement and was interrogated,” the statement read in part.
-Leadership