Hadi Sirika, the former President Muhammadu Buhari’s minister of aviation, has been detained by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in connection with an ongoing N8 billion money laundering investigation involving Nigeria Air.

According to information obtained by Vanguard, Sirika arrived at the EFCC’s Federal Capital Territory Command on Tuesday at around 1:00 pm.

The EFCC is questioning Sirika at the moment on purportedly fraudulent contracts that he gave to a business called Engirios Nigeria Limited, which is owned by his younger brother, Abubakar Sirika.

Remember that the EFCC looked into the Aviation Ministry’s operations under Sirika in February for possible conspiracy, official misconduct, misappropriation of funds, and contract inflation.

Other offenses include money laundering and criminal breaches of trust totaling N8,069,176,864.00 when Sirika was in government.

In addition to holding the positions of Managing Director and CEO, Abubakar is purportedly the only signatory on the company’s two accounts, which are located in Zenith and Union Banksy.

According to information obtained, the commission has detained and arrested the younger brother of the former minister, Abubakar Sirika, in relation to N3,212,258,930.18 that the former minister deposited into the bank account of his company, Engirios Nigerian Limited.

It was observed that no evidence of work had been completed on any of the contract items up to this point.

In order to help the panel with its investigation of the Aviation Ministry’s financial outlays during his term, Sirika was taken into custody on Sunday, February 4.

The post Nigeria Air: Former Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika Arrested over N8bn fraud first appeared on Opinion Nigeria.