How arms broker Hima Aboubakar got millions dollars from Nigeria

Amid the spilling of uncooked feelings over Boko Haram’s surprising kidnapping of 214 Chibok schoolgirls in Borno State, north-east Nigeria, in April 2014, the Nigerian authorities awarded contracts price tens of millions of {dollars} for the provision of weapons and instruments to spice up its offensive in opposition to the terrorists. However earlier than formalising the contracts, officers started transferring tens of millions to the contractor, Hima Aboubakar.

Mr Aboubakar, an arms dealer from Niger Republic on Nigeria’s northern border, had no firm and financial institution accounts in Nigeria to execute the defence contracts when he burst onto the scene in 2014, one of many years Boko Haram was most brutal in killing civilians.

Inside a month, he included an organization with no organisational construction and opened a checking account for the agency, designating himself as the only real signatory. Simply seven days later, $36 million from the Nigerian authorities was deposited into the newly established account, starting a money move spanning 14 months from the Nigerian authorities into the account and subsequent ones arrange by Mr Aboubakar.

In 2015, a probe committee established by then-President Muhammadu Buhari investigated these contracts and others courting again to 2007. The Committee on Audit of Defence Tools Procurement (CADEP) uncovered “opaque, poorly supervised, irreconcilable, and doubtful contracts” awarded to Mr Aboubakar and his companies. Extra broadly, the committee revealed that the then Nationwide Safety Adviser, Sambo Dasuki, who disbursed arms contract funds to Mr Aboubakar and different contractors between 2014 and 2015, couldn’t account for $2 billion. Mr Dasuki has denied any wrongdoing and has been on trial since 2015.

PREMIUM TIMES has obtained a trove of beforehand unreleased court docket paperwork shedding gentle on a scheme that has siphoned Nigeria’s arms funds for many years.

The paperwork have been filed in 2020 on the Federal Excessive Courtroom in Abuja by Nigeria’s main anti-corruption company, the Financial and Monetary Crimes Fee (EFCC), to hunt the forfeiture of balances in a few of Mr Aboubakar’s financial institution accounts and properties linked to him in Abuja, whereas making efforts to arrest him for prosecution. EFCC declared him wished on 24 October 2019 and, within the following 12 months, started to pursue the non-conviction-based forfeiture proceedings concentrating on his belongings inside attain. The case is on attraction after Mr Aboubakar received on the trial court docket.

Our evaluation lined financial institution information, company filings, title paperwork, home buy agreements, and extrajudicial statements of events to the true property transactions. We cross-referenced these paperwork with stories of investigative panels and United States court docket filings regarding ongoing authorized battles over a part of the arms funds confiscated by the American authorities.

The assessment paints a extra detailed image of investigators’ earlier findings of how Mr Aboubakar shortchanged Nigeria by undersupplying navy tools, inflating costs, and dishonestly supplying refurbished tools that always broke down.

Our report reveals how the doubtful nature of the contracts precipitated Nigeria’s losses however enriched Mr Aboubakar with tens of millions of {dollars}.

Scrutinising practically 1,000 financial institution transactions throughout 10 financial institution accounts related with Mr Aboubakar shines a clearer highlight on the place a big quantity of the funds went into as a substitute of arms procurement.

The monitoring reveals patterns of alarming money withdrawals and transfers to bureau de change operators from the accounts of Mr Aboubakar’s firms that obtained funds in {dollars} from the Nigerian authorities. On a sure day, Mr Aboubakar withdrew $200,000 in 25 instalments, totalling a staggering $5 million.

These money transactions and transfers to foreign exchange operators, which prosecutors say elevate cash laundering considerations, have been typically adopted by huge deposits from bureau de change operators in Mr Aboubakar’s private accounts.

From the non-public accounts, Mr Aboubakar purchased luxurious vehicles and actual property inside and out of doors Nigeria and transferred funds to navy officers who EFCC stated have been concerned within the approval of defence contracts secured by him. EFCC additionally stated a number of of those vehicles have been distributed to the navy officers. Nigerian courts cleared a few of the officers of wrongdoing however not less than considered one of them was convicted of receiving bribes from Mr Aboubakar.

Broadly, funds from two company greenback accounts moved straight to some arms distributors. However a bigger chunk of them streamed to financial institution accounts of native and offshore entities with unclear company missions, shops, people, foreign exchange operators, who paid again to Mr Aboubakar’s accounts in several currencies, largely naira. A major quantity additionally vanished from the accounts by means of money withdrawals.

Mr Aboubakar’s lawyer, Kayode Ajulo, declined to debate the case, citing his present place as Legal professional-Common and Commissioner for Justice in Ondo State. Nonetheless, the lawyer maintained his consumer’s innocence in a 2020 court docket submitting, the place he additionally declared that Mr Aboubakar had relocated completely to his nation, Niger Republic.

EFCC, too, has but to reply to our enquiries concerning the case.

Legacies of corruption

Corruption, underpinned by the overall local weather of impunity, runs deep in Nigeria’s defence contracting processes and reaches far again in time, contributing to the worsening insecurity.

“The undisputed connections between corruption broadly and insecurity are globally resolved,” stated Lanre Suraj, who chairs the Human and Environmental Improvement Agenda (HEDA), a non-government organisation that has carried out in depth analysis and led transparency advocacies on public procurement and corruption within the county.

His assertion is according to the consensus of a number of research.

For example, a 2020 analysis revealed a mismatch between funding for Nigeria’s navy and its efficiency. It stated “regardless of enormous spending or expenditures on navy operations inside the years, the safety of the state stays deteriorating.” It blamed the result on corruption, an absence of transparency in navy procurement, the absence of monitoring and management mechanisms, amongst different points.

The Nigerian authorities, by means of the navy and funding establishments, hides underneath the broad principle of nationwide safety to keep away from accountability in awarding defence contracts and use of allotted funds.

Beneath the cloud of secrecy, the provisions of the Public Procurement Act (PPA), 2007, which governs all classes of contracts, are violated.

Procuring authorities abuse the exemptions the PPA grants defence contracts, completely disregarding necessary safeguarding provisions of the legislation that search to make sure the federal government will get worth for its navy spending.

CADEP, arrange by the Buhari administration in 2015 to probe arms procurements courting again to 2007, concluded that just about all of the Nigerian Military procurement dealt with by the Ministry of Defence, the Nigerian Military and ONSA “have been basically not executed in compliance with the PPA 2007.”

The results of the tradition of arbitrariness and authorized violations concerning defence contracts are dire, however the full scope could by no means be identified.

In January this 12 months, the federal government of Jersey Island introduced the restoration of Nigeria’s $8.9 million looted by means of phoney defence contracts between 2014 and 2015, highlighting the potential for but undiscovered arms funds nonetheless hidden inside and out of doors Nigeria.

“Defence procurements stay removed from being clear and corruption-free in Nigeria,” Mr Suraj stated.

Contained in the flawed contracts

Mr Aboubakar, 51, often known as Petit Boubé, quickly ascended to prominence as an arms dealer in Niger, transitioning from a small-time printer to a significant provider of arms to the Niger authorities inside a couple of years.

His foray into the arms commerce started in 2000 when he leveraged connections within the newly shaped Mouvement Nationwide pour la Société du Développement (MNSD) authorities.

Nonetheless, we discovered no proof of prior arms dealings with the Nigerian authorities earlier than 2014.

Mr Aboubakar secured 4 contracts price $883.3 million to provide weapons to the Nigerian navy in April 2014. Nonetheless, solely two contracts have been funded.

CADEP documented flaws within the contracting processes, together with inflated costs, undersupply of apparatus, and the supply of expired gadgets vulnerable to breakdown.

Moreover, some funds have been transferred earlier than the formalisation of contracts, with the Central Financial institution of Nigeria vaguely labelling the disbursements as “procurement of technical tools.” This lack of specificity allowed Mr Aboubakar to allocate funds at his discretion with out session with ONSA or the Nigerian Military, the panel acknowledged.

The panel additionally discovered that a few of the platforms and ammunition procured by Mr Aboubakar and deployed for the North-east operations “have been aged or expired, lacked spares and vulnerable to breakdown with out quick restoration tools.”

The panel discovered that the military additionally didn’t conduct necessary pre-shipment inspections specified within the contracts, leading to unreliable tools that diminished operational capability and led to extra deaths. For example, the BTR-4E Armoured Personnel Service bought from Ukraine was amongst 42 models rejected by Iraq as a result of poor efficiency.

Complicating the matter, the panel stated Mr Aboubakar concerned firms with no contract settlement with the Nigerian authorities to provide a few of the arms. “Consequently, it had been tough for the ONSA, the Nigerian Military and SEI to reconcile the accounts vis-a-vis the tools delivered.”

The committee really helpful additional investigations and potential prosecutions for Mr Aboubakar and different implicated defence contractors and navy officers. A complete of 18 navy officers, together with two former Chiefs of Military Employees, and quite a few executives from firms linked to the shady contracts have been recognized for additional investigations and attainable prosecution.

Pay the value of flawed contracts

As a mess of officers and contractors profited from the shadowy defence contracts amid Nigeria’s ongoing battle in opposition to terrorism, the survivors of the devastation by Boko Haram and its factions within the final decade stay in perpetual grief over their losses – family members, ancestral houses, and livelihoods.

Hajara Muhammad, who’s left together with her daughter after fleeing Baga, one of the traumatised communities in Borno State on the peak of Boko Haram assaults in 2015, is a dwelling memorial to the horror of the unrelenting insurgency of Boko Haram/ISWAP since not less than 2010.

“I witnessed how Boko Haram slaughtered 9 male members of my household,” Ms Muhammed recounted to PREMIUM TIMES in Hotoro in Tarauni Native Authorities Space of Kano State, the place she has been compelled to reside as a displaced individual after fleeing Baga in 2015.

Ms Muhammed is a part of a rising variety of about 3.3 million folks already displaced as a result of conflicts and violence on the finish of 2023, about half of them in Borno State, the place she fled from in 2015.

Developing the conduits

At 41 years outdated in April 2014, Mr Aboubakar was engaged by the Mr Dasuki-led Workplace of the Nationwide Safety Adviser (ONSA) on behalf of the Nigerian authorities to provide arms to the Nigerian Military.

He swung into establishing company entities to execute the contracts.

He first arrange the Societe D’Equipments Internationaux (SEI) Nigeria Restricted, his flagship firm in Nigeria, on 19 Might 2014.

He allotted himself the bulk shares of the corporate and designated himself the only real signatory to all of the agency’s financial institution accounts.

Company paperwork reveal that the remaining shares have been allotted to Ousmane Hima, who CADEP described as Mr Aboubakar’s brother, believed to be resident in Niamey, Niger.

Open-source information point out that Mr Aboubakar established a lesser-known firm, HKSK-SAWKI Ltd, on 5 June 2014. The corporate is known as after Hong Kong-based HKSK-Sawki Restricted, based by Nigeriens Kabirou Abdoulkadri and Souleymane Siddo, who have been residing in China. Initially registered as a furnishings firm in Hong Kong, HKSK-SAWKI Ltd turned concerned with Mr Aboubakar and SEI in controversial arms brokering actions, ensuing within the US authorities seizing over $8.6 million meant for arms procurement for Nigeria in 2014.

On 9 June 2014, 5 days after establishing the Nigerian HKSK-Sawki, Mr Aboubakar arrange APC Axiale Restricted. He equally has the controlling shares of the 2 new firms and is the only real signatory to their accounts.

We discovered 10 financial institution accounts in naira, {dollars}, euros and kilos sterling, linked to Mr Aboubakar. 4 of those accounts have been registered in SEI’s title. However he in all probability ran greater than the accounts that we discovered.

With Mr Aboubakar as the only real signatory to all the businesses’ company financial institution accounts, solely an imaginary line separates his purse from that of his firms’ enterprise ventures.

Establishing these firms and financial institution accounts, over which he exercised absolute management, successfully plugged his conduits to Nigeria’s defence money cow.

The Aboubakar influx

As acknowledged earlier on this story, Mr Aboubakar was awarded 4 contracts price $883.3 million to provide weapons to the Nigerian navy in April 2014, however solely two contracts have been funded, based on CADEP.

The panel verified that, from Might 2014 to March 2015, the Workplace of the Nationwide Safety Adviser (ONSA) launched $386.85 million to Mr Aboubakar’s firms.

We tracked solely $295.15 million paid to Mr Aboubakar’s SEI not simply by ONSA however by different authorities our bodies. We additionally discovered a complete sum of N350 million paid in two tranches by ONSA into SEI’s account.

It’s probably that there have been different accounts opened for SEI after its incorporation that we couldn’t discover or that EFCC didn’t file in court docket.

What is evident is that the 2 SEI greenback accounts we reviewed are on the coronary heart of the corporate’s operations.

That is how the corporate obtained the funds from the Nigerian authorities.

SEI’s Zenith Financial institution greenback domiciliary account 5070345440 (#5440) was opened on 21 Might 2014, simply two days after its incorporation. Every week later, on 28 Might 2014, it obtained its first main deposit of $36 million from ONSA. ONSA then transferred over $7 million in two instalments into the account on 13 June 2014.

After a three-month hiatus, the Workplace of the Secretary to the Authorities of the Federation deposited $60 million on 8 September 2014, adopted by a $100 million switch from NNPC on 22 December 2014.

The account obtained $30 million on 18 March 2015 and an extra $5.1 million from the “Nigerian Excessive Fee” on 19 March, totalling over $238 million in authorities transfers between Might 2014 and March 2015.

SEI additionally obtained funds by means of a First Financial institution greenback domiciliary account 2024924744 (#4744), opened with an preliminary steadiness of $2,000 on 21 Might 2014. This account started receiving authorities funds in 2015, with a $50 million switch from ONSA on 20 March and a ultimate $6.95 million on 5 Might, totalling $56.95 million.

In complete, SEI obtained $295.15 million in authorities transfers between Might 2014 and March 2015 to execute the defence contracts. Moreover, SEI’s naira account 1013860768 (#0768) at Zenith Financial institution obtained two transfers from ONSA, totalling N350 million.

“That an organization obtained an enormous amount of cash from the federal government as contract funds with none critical organisational construction and the founder being the only real controller of its funds elevate a critical purple flag,” stated Oluwaleke Atolagbe, a lawyer with huge expertise prosecuting high-profile corruption instances, together with procurement fraud and different monetary crimes.

Mr Atolagbe, who’s presently concerned in prosecuting Mr Dasuki, stated the dearth of organisational construction ought to have raised the considerations about attainable inflation of the contracts.

“Had been these contracts executed? Did the award of these contracts comply with due course of? What patterns have been used to withdraw or expend the cash obtained? What was the cash obtained expended on?” the lawyer requested additional.

The hurry that characterised every little thing, from the award of the contracts to the establishing of the contracting firms and financial institution accounts for the companies in a single day, and the Nigerian authorities’s funds to them, coupled with Mr Aboubakar’s absolute management over the companies’ funds, is a robust pointer to a attainable lack of due diligence necessary for all classes of contracts underneath the procurement legislation.

Heavy money withdrawals, foreign exchange transfers by Hima Aboubakar 

In accordance with EFCC’s filings submitted to the Federal Excessive Courtroom in Abuja in Might 2020, the funds wired by the Nigerian authorities’s our bodies to SEI’s naira and greenback accounts have been straight or not directly the sources of funds with which Mr Aboubakar purchased two properties – a home and a big expanse of undeveloped land, each within the coronary heart of selection Maitama space of Abuja.

The fee insists that vital elements of the funds have been “both withdrawn money” by Mr Aboubakar “or transferred to BDC operators inside Nigeria”.

We tracked a complete of $14.7 million withdrawn from the SEI’s Zenith Checking account #5440 in 72 money transactions. Twenty-five of those money withdrawals befell in simply at some point, 19 March 2015, with Mr Abubakar taking out $200,000 in every withdrawal.

Additionally, from 23 April 2015 to 16 July 2015, Mr Aboubakar made 9 money withdrawals totalling $4.97 million from SEI’s First Checking account #4744.

These sum as much as $19.67 million in money withdrawals believed to have been transformed to naira. It recommended to investigators that the cash couldn’t have been used to import arms.

Our assessment tracked $16.46 million that streamed from SEI’s account #5440 to the financial institution accounts of BDC operators, who then funnelled the naira equal of the funds into Mr Aboubakar’s private naira accounts – First Checking account 3083229135 (#9135) and Zenith Checking account #0143.

Of this quantity, $15.46 million went to Karahyna Nigeria Restricted, a agency marked by the EFCC as one of many main BDC operators allegedly utilized by Mr Aboubakar for changing the {dollars} obtained in SEI’s accounts to naira.

In 11 transactions between 23 April 2014 and 30 October 2015, a complete of $5.32 million was transferred from SEI’s First Checking account #4744 to Joatob Design Providers. EFCC described Joatab in a court docket submitting as a shelf firm utilized by a workers member of First Financial institution, Adetobi Olajumoke, to transform US {dollars} to naira.The naira accounts of Mr Aboubakar and SEI reveal common huge deposits from Karahyna and Joatob.

Joatob’s largest single deposit was N100 million, which was transferred to Mr Aboubakar’s First Checking account 3083229135 (#9135) on 23 April 2015. That very same day, Joatob earlier obtained $2 million from SEI’s Zenith Financial institution greenback account.

Karahyna’s largest day by day deposit was N1 billion, which it paid into Mr Aboubakar’s Zenith Financial institution Naira account #0143 in 10 tranches. The BDC wired the funds to Mr Aboubakar on 23 March 2015 after receiving its highest single switch of $5 million from SEI’s Zenith Checking account #5440 earlier that day.

Instantly after the tenth tranche of N100 million hit account #0143 on 23 March, your entire N1 billion moved in a single fell swoop to a landowner’s account, serving as Mr Aboubakar’s first instalment fee for an enormous expanse of undeveloped land in Maitama, Abuja.

He additionally transferred N160 million from the identical account as half fee for a N400 million home in Maitama.

A subsequent PREMIUM TIMES report will seize extra particulars about the true property and luxurious automotive purchases.

‘Suspicious’

Mr Atolagbe, the personal lawyer concerned in prosecuting corruption instances for the EFCC (however not concerned in Mr Aboubakar’s case), stated heavy money withdrawals and profuse use of foreign exchange operators by company organisations “are usually not essentially prison, however are suspicious”.

Only a piece of the jigsaw

West Africa’s GIABA, the physique that screens and promotes compliance with anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing measures within the area, warned Nigeria in its final mutual analysis report issued in August 2021 concerning the implications of weak oversight over suspicious transactions and actions of BDCs within the nation.

In accordance with the physique, “hundreds of foreign exchange sellers function informally and are solely unsupervised,” supplying oxygen and enabling cash laundering and terrorism financing to thrive.

It additionally recognized a “restricted scope of entities” that reported “suspicious transaction stories” and the standard of such stories as a significant hole within the preventive measures with understated danger profiles. Many Designated Non-Monetary Companies and Professions (DNFBPs), together with BDCs, typically don’t file such suspicious transaction stories to the Nigeria Monetary Intelligence Unit (NFIU).

That could be a colossal hole, the report stated, in a nation the place “the variety of investigations, prosecutions and convictions for ML (cash laundering) is inconsistent with the danger profile of the nation.”

Mr Suraj, the HEDA chair, stated the unchecked impunity within the land and insensitivity “has exacerbated the insecurity and criminality degree throughout the nation.”Residents like Ms Muhammed, displaced by Boko Haram assaults, pay the steep worth for impunity that fuels insecurity within the nation.

“We left Borno not as a result of we love Kano however as a result of we have now no choice however to flee our houses. Issues have modified for the more serious,” the lady, who misplaced 9 members of the family – husband, kids and father to Boko Haram assaults – informed PREMIUM TIMES.

*Further reporting by Abubakar Ahmadu Maishanu.