EFCC probes Rivers State Governor, Rotimi Amaechi over missing $10m

The crisis over an aircraft owned by the Rivers State Government deepened on Thursday, as the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission commenced a discreet probe to determine Governor Rotimi Amaechi’s link to the alleged inflation of the cost of the plane by $10m. The aircraft has been the subject of a row between the Rivers State Government and the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority.

It was learnt that the anti-graft agency is looking into the ‘high possibility’ of alleged money laundering in relation to the purchase of the aircraft.

A source said on Thursday that while the state government claimed to have purchased the Bombardier aircraft with $57m, records available to the EFCC showed that it may have been bought for $47m, thereby creating room for suspicion on how $10m was spent.

It was learnt that the state House of Assembly approved the purchase of the controversial aircraft within 24 hours.

It was further gathered that operatives of the EFCC might also be looking into how two aircraft purchased by the Rivers State Government under former Governor Peter Odili were managed.

One of the aircraft was sold to the Cross River State Government while the other aircraft manufactured by a Brazilian firm, an air ambulance, was said to have been phased out.

Investigations further revealed that the company wrote the Rivers State Government to say it was longer manufacturing the spare parts of the aircraft and so it was returned.

A source said the anti-graft agency was probing the management of the aircraft because rather than just phasing it out, it should have been traded in for another aircraft.

It was learnt that a focus of the investigation was to find out if there was any link whatsoever between the new aircraft and the aircraft in the area of cost.