The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has raised alarm over alleged plans by two co-defendants of former Managing Director of the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON), Ahmed Kuru, to sell aircraft assets tied to an ongoing multi-billion naira fraud trial.
At a hearing on Wednesday, July 30, 2025, before Justice Mojisola Dada of the Special Offences Court in Ikeja, Lagos, EFCC counsel, Wahab Shittu, SAN, told the court that Kamilu Omokide, Receiver Manager of Arik Air, and Capt. Roy Ilegbodu, Chief Executive Officer of Arik Air, were allegedly planning to dispose of assets central to the N75 billion and $31.5 million fraud case.
The defendants — Kuru, Ilegbodu, Omokide, Union Bank of Nigeria Plc, and Super Bravo Limited — are facing a six-count charge bordering on conspiracy, stealing, and abuse of office.
According to the EFCC, the charges include fraudulent conversion of funds and making false representations to AMCON in connection with the sale of Arik Air’s performing loans and guarantees.
One of the counts reads:
“That you, Union Bank Nigeria Plc, sometime in 2011 or thereabouts, in Lagos, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, with the intention of causing and/or inducing unwarranted sale of Arik Air loans and bank guarantees with Union Bank, made false statements to the Assets Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON), regarding Arik Air Limited’s performing loans, following which you transferred a bogus figure of N71,000,000,000.00 (Seventy-One Billion Naira) to AMCON.”
Another charge alleges that in 2022, Kuru, Omokide, and Ilegbodu fraudulently converted N4.9 billion, belonging to Arik Air, to the use of NG Eagle Limited.
Shittu raised the concern in court while responding to a medical travel application filed by the second defendant, Ilegbodu, on July 29, 2025, through his lawyer Oyinkansola Badejo.
Though he did not oppose the application, Shittu warned:
“We have intelligence report that some of the aircraft may be sold. We do not want any actions that may compromise the subject matter of this case. Our concern is the integrity of this trial.”
In response, counsel to Ilegbodu denied his client’s involvement in any asset disposal plans, insisting that the second defendant had “no role or authority” in such decisions.
Olalekan Ojo, SAN, counsel to the fourth defendant, Union Bank, also refuted the EFCC’s allegations, maintaining that the bank — “a responsible corporate entity” — had not been implicated in any asset sale attempt.
Ojo said: “The SAN (Shittu) is not an investigator. I urge the court to discountenance his claims.”
But Shittu insisted that his role as EFCC’s representative was to ensure the integrity of the case:
“As far as this case is concerned, I am the EFCC. We are only saying that no one should act contrary to the proceedings or the law.”
After listening to all arguments, Justice Dada granted the travel request of Ilegbodu for urgent medical treatment, as well as a separate travel application filed earlier by the first and third defendants on July 17, 2025.
