Former Air Force chief jailed 21 years for N137m contract fraud

A Federal High Court in Abuja has sentenced a retired senior official of the Nigerian Air Force, Air Vice Marshall Tony Omenyi (retd) to 21 years cumulative term of imprisonment after being convicted on a three-count charge of fraud.

Omenyi was the Managing Director of Aeronautical Engineering and Technical Services Limited, a subsidiary company of Nigerian Air Force, when he was said to have committed the offence.

Justice Nnamdi Dimgba, in a judgment on Thursday, sentenced Omenyi to seven years per count and directed that the term of imprisonment shall run concurrently.

The EFCC had in 2016 charged Omenyi and his company, Huzee Nigeria Limited with three counts of money laundering, upon a report by the panel set up by the Federal Government to investigate the use of the funds allocated for the purchase of arms under previous administrations,

The prosecution said Omenyi, between January and November 2014, received various sums of money estimated at about N136,323,000.

through his company, Huzee Nigeria Limited from Sky Experts Nigeria Limited, a contractor with NAF.

M.S Abubakar, who led the prosecution team alleged that Omenyi, a sole signatory to the bank account of Huzee Nigeria Limited, received various sums of fund from the contractor when he and the company reasonably ought to know that the various sums of money formed part of the proceed of corruption.

By their conduct, the defendants were said to have violated section 15(2)(d) of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act 2011 and punishable under section 15(3) and (4) of the same Act, which provided a minimum of seven years and maximum of 14 years imprisonment for the offence.

Omenyi was arraigned, with his company, Huzee Nigeria Limited, on November 11, 2016 by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

They were charged with abuse of office and money laundering to the tune of N136,323,000 .

The defendants, who was represented by Gordy Uche (SAN), denied the charges and pleaded not guilty to the charges, following which a trail was conducted, during which the prosecution called five witnesses and tendered about 20 documents, which were admitted in evidence, and closed its case on April 17, 2018.

The defendant also conducted their case at the closure of the prosecution’s case.