The military officer who is currently wanted by the EFCC for alleged N2billion corruption, sneaked into Nigeria in October 2021 after he illegally obtained an international passport with the help of some corrupt government officials
A former Director of Nigerian Navy Accounts, Rear Admiral Tahir Yusuf (retd.), on the wanted list of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has ordered an assault on a man (name withheld) thinking he was a staff of SaharaReporters.
SaharaReporters gathered that Yusuf told military guards given to him by the Nigerian Navy authorities to assault the young man when he saw him holding a phone when he came during the execution of a court order directing Yusuf to release motorcycles, a tricycle and a Toyota Corolla vehicle he forcefully took from his wife’s bakery in Zaria, Kaduna State.
The naval officers were led by an officer identified as Adamu.
A magistrate court in Kaduna State had ordered the release of the motorcycles and car taken from Bitmas Bakery Limited in Zaria but Yusuf has refused to obey the court order.
Sources said the military officer who is currently wanted by the EFCC for alleged N2billion corruption, sneaked into Nigeria in October 2021 after he illegally obtained an international passport with the help of some corrupt government officials through Niger Republic.[story_link align="left"]100663[/story_link]
He was said to have stormed the bakery with military officers and taken the vehicle, motorcycles and others found in it to his personal house.
Court documents seen by SaharaReporters ordered the fugitive to release the vehicle, motorcycles and tricycle.
However, since the court ruling on October 25, he has not released them to the owners.
“When he is in Zaria, he stays in Emerald hotel and suits, a hotel he acquired when he was holding public office. He has many hotels in other different cities,” a source told SaharaReporters.
“We went to execute this order when he came with his naval officers and molested the court staff and police. He again unlawfully detained another car.
“So he saw a guy holding a phone, he told them to beat him thinking he was a staff with SaharaReporters. They knocked him down with a car, seized his phone and gave him serious beating. He spent the night in the hospital. He has become law onto himself.”
SaharaReporters had reported that the EFCC accused Yusuf of stealing N2billion belonging to the Nigerian government while serving as Director of Nigerian Navy Accounts.
In 2020, Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu of a Federal High Court in Abuja also ordered the permanent forfeiture of about N500 million found to be fraudulently amassed by the military officer to the Nigerian government.
The total amount forfeited was N392,695,857.87, including $91,955.38 and the sum of £15,050 held in domiciliary accounts.[story_link align="left"]100981[/story_link]
Yusuf, previously second-in-command to the Chief of Account and Budget, Naval Headquarters (NHQ), held the cash in seven accounts- both private and corporate in two banks.
The seven accounts were operated under the name of a company, Bitmas Enterprise, in Zenith Bank while two were held in Yusuf’s name in the defunct Skye Bank, now Polaris Bank.
Following the forfeiture, SaharaReporters gathered that Yusuf fled Nigeria to Dubai, United Arab Emirate.
The EFCC and National Intelligence Agency also asked the Nigeria Immigration Service and Interpol to place him on a watch list and have him arrested at the point of entry or exit.