The arms procurement scandal ‘Dasukigate’ that happened under the immediate past administration of Goodluck Jonathan has reared its ugly head at the US court as litigation on the issue continued in Nigeria. A national of Niger Republic, Hima Aboubakar and a US arms dealer, Ara Dolarian, are locked in a legal battle involving a $246m contract.
Aboubakar is suing Dolarian at a California court for fraud. Aboubakar claimed the US arms dealer failed to ship $8.6m worth of bombs and rockets to Nigeria as ordered, damaging his reputation as “a trusted arms supplier to the Nigerian military”.
Dolarian on his part alleged in court documents that he was unwittingly caught up in a “money laundering scheme” and that Aboubakar’s arms money was “stolen from the Nigerian government”.
Pieter Wezeman, a researcher at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, said Dolarian’s deal with Aboubakar and his company Societe d’Equipments Internationaux “rings alarm bells”.
Court documents show SEI signed off on the purchase of six Mi-24 and Mi-35 helicopters from Dolarian for $25m each, which Wezeman said was far above their normal value of $5m each.
A former National Security Adviser, Col Sambo Dasuki (retd.), is facing criminal charges for the diversion of $2.1bn arms fund, breach of trust, money laundering and arms possession.
Last year, a committee set up by Buhari indicated that SEI played a “major” role in the alleged scam after being awarded nearly $1bn worth of contracts “characterised by irregularity and fraud”.
Aboubakar, however, told AFP, “We continue to work with the Nigerian Army. Forget about what the people say; they lie.”
