CASE NUMBER 10922:

FORMER AIR VICE MARSHAL OMENYI SENTENCED TO 7 YEARS OVER N136M FRAUD

Alleged Perpetrators(s)

Tony Omenyi

Location (Town / State)

Abuja, Abuja

Date of Event

28 Feb 2019

Date of republication

28 February every year

Case category (Choose all that apply)

Case Summary

Former Air Vice Marshal, Tony Omenyi (retd) has been convicted to Seven years in prison for N136million money laundering.

Full story

Prior to the money laundering charge by EFCC, Air Vice Marshal Omenyi was the Managing Director of Aeronautical Engineering and Technical Services Limited, subsidiary company of the Nigerian Air Force. The sum of N136m laundered was money received from NAF contractor over arms deals.

EFCC had in 2016 charged Omenyi and his company, Huzee Nigeria Limited, with three counts of money laundering following an investigative panel set up by the Federal Government to inquire on the use of funds earmarked for purchase of arms under the President Goodluck administration. Arraigned at the Federal High Court in Abuja, before Justice Dimgba, he stated that EFCC proved its case beyond reasonable doubt pointing out how the convict used his company, Huzee Nigeria Limited to swindle the allegedly received money from the contractor. Based on the above, the Ex AVM Omenyi was sentenced to seven years’ imprisonment on each of the three counts which should run concurrently.

Justice Dimgba ordered that the convict’s company, Huzee Nigeria Limited, in which he was said to have interests, as well as the sole signatory to the bank account through which N136.325m was received from the contractor, Sky Experts Nigeria Limited, be wound up by the Federal Government. More so, he was ordered to forfeit the sum of N62m already recovered from him by the EFCC to the Federal Government. The offences in the three counts 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.

Justice Dimgba rebuked the defence of the convict stating that, “the first defendant (Omenyi) did not operate in the standard of a true public officer. He made it known that a public official with any role to play in any contract awarded by a government agency to a contractor should at all times have an arms-length relationship with the said contractor.

External links/URLs

https://www.vanguardngr.com/2019/03/ex-air-force-chief-tony-omenyi-jailed-21-years-over-money-laundering/
https://guardian.ng/news/court-jails-ex-air-force-chief-21-years-over-arms-deal/

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