Information about Metuh EFCC and Dasuki Gates

In addition to failing economy, Boko Haram insurgency, Nigeria is now reeling under the infamous Dasuki Gates. This scandal is basically a financial fraud conducted by some big names associated to the country’s NSA agency (National Security Advisor) agency. At the eye of this storm is the ex-NSA Colonel Sambo Dasuki after whom this scandal has been named.

The Dasuki Gates involved a $2billion arms deal fraud which was uncovered during an investigation conducted by the presidential investigations committee which was formed underthe previous Jonathan government. As this committee discovered, more than $2 billion of money was embezzled from the office of NSA during the time it was headed by Colonel Dasuki, the main accused in this scandal. The committee found that approximately N643.8 billion, over and above the allocated funds, regarding an international arm’s deal being done by the government. Apart from this money, an addition amount close to $2.2 billion in foreign currency component was also used by the previous government. Since the deal was primarily carried out by the NSA, its chief at the time, Colonel Dasuki was investigated as well. He was found guilty of embezzlement of money in order to help the re-election efforts of the then President Good luck Jonathan. Dasuki Gates scandal has affected Nigeria’s current political scene in a big way.

As a result of his part in the Dasuki Gates fraud, Colonel Sambo Dasuki was arrested on December 1, 2015 by the DSS (Department of StateServices). He was then transferred to the custody of the EFCC (Economic and FinancialCrimes) for next steps. Although the spotlight is on Dasuki, an interesting revelation came from these Dasuki Gates regarding the Metuh EFCC spat. Olisa Metuh who was the spokesperson of PDP (People’s Democratic Party) when this fraud happened, has also been blamed by the EFCC for his involvement in the scandal. Of course Metuh denies it, and has alleged that the EFCC are targeting him unfairly—formingthe basis of this issue.

In addition to the Metuh EFCC scandal, there is one more twist in this Dasuki Gates scandal – the involvement of Alex Badesh, the former Chief of Defence Staff. At the centre of the Metuh EFCC spat is the accusation by EFCC that Olisa Metuh laundered a sum of N400 million amount during the Dasuki Gates fraud. Metuh vehemently denies these charges. Additionally Alex Badeh has also charged by the EFCC with the laundering of the sum of around N3.9 billion. Big names like Badeh and Metuh have pushed the Dasuki Gates to even further prominence, and how their trial results remains to be seen.