The former managing director of Assets Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON), Ahmed Kuru, and four other individuals were charged by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on Monday, January 20, 2025, with defrauding Arik Airline of N76 billion and $31.5 million.
Arik Airline Ltd.’s previous receiver manager, Kamilu Omokide, the airline’s CEO, Captain Roy Ilegbodu, Super Bravo Ltd., and Union Bank plc are additional defendants.
Judge Mojisola Dada of the Special Offences Court in Ikeja, Lagos, arraigned the defendants on a six-count charge that included theft, abuse of office, and theft by dishonestly taking another person’s property.
But when the six counts were read to the defendants, they all entered not-guilty pleas.
“That sometime in 2011 or thereabouts, in Lagos, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, you, Union Bank Nigeria Plc, made false statements to the Assets Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) regarding the performing loans of Arik Air Limited with the intent of causing and/or inducing an unwarranted sale of Arik Air loans and bank guarantees with Union Bank, after which you transferred a fictitious amount of N71, 000,000,000.00 (seventy-one billion naira) to AMCON.”
“That sometime in 2022 or thereabout, in Lagos, within the jurisdiction of this honourable court, you, Ahmed Lawal Kuru, Kamilu Alaba Omokide, as Receiver Manager of Arik Air Limited, and Captain Roy Ilegbodu, Chief Executive Officer of Arik Air Limited in Receivership, fraudulently converted to the use of NG Eagle Limited the total sum of N4,900,000,000.00 (Four Billion Nine Hundred Million Naira only), property of Arik Air Limited.”
“That on February 12, 2022, or thereabouts, in Lagos, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, you, Kamilu Alaba Omokide, Ahmed Lawal Kuru, and Capt. Roy Ilegbodu, as public officers, directed to be done in abuse of the authority of your office and with intention of obtaining an undue advantage for yourself and cronies, an arbitrary act—that is, intentionally authorising the teardown and destruction of 5N-JEA with Serial No. 15058 valued at $31.5 million (thirty-one million, five hundred thousand dollars), an arbitrary act that is detrimental to the financial stability of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and Arik Air Limited.”
Professor Taiwo Osipitan, SAN, the first and third defendants’ lawyer, notified the court of the two defendants’ November 28 and 29 2024 motions for bail.
Osipitan asked the court to grant the accused liberal bail terms. He claimed that the first defendant had no criminal history and that he did not jump the administrative bail that the EFCC had granted him.
The lawyer prayed that the court would grant the two defendants bail on the same lenient terms that the EFCC had granted them.
