A former Director of Nigerian Navy Accounts, Rear Admiral Tahir Yusuf (retd.), on the wanted list of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has sneaked back into the country using an illegally obtained international passport, SaharaReporters has gathered.
The EFCC had accused Yusuf of stealing N2billion belonging to the Nigerian government while serving as Director of Nigerian Navy Accounts.
In 2020, Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu of a Federal High Court in Abuja ordered the permanent forfeiture of about N500 million found to be fraudulently amassed by the military officer to the Nigerian government.
The total amount forfeited was N392,695,857.87, including $91,955.38 and the sum of £15,050 held in domiciliary accounts.
Yusuf, previously second-in-command to the Chief of Account and Budget, Naval Headquarters (NHQ), held the cash in seven accounts- both private and corporate in two banks.
The seven accounts were operated under the name of a company, Bitmas Enterprise, in Zenith Bank while two were held in Yusuf’s name in the defunct Skye Bank, now Polaris Bank.
Following the forfeiture, SaharaReporters gathered that Yusuf fled Nigeria to Dubai, United Arab Emirate.
The EFCC and National Intelligence Agency also asked the Nigeria Immigration Service and Interpol to place him on a watch list and have him arrested at the point of entry or exit.
However, Yusuf sneaked back to the country in October after he illegally obtained an international passport with the help of some corrupt government officials through Niger Republic, a source told SaharaReporters.
The source added that the fugitive had been moving round the country with military guards provided by the Navy authorities.
“The Admiral ran to Dubai about 4 years back. Before then, the EFCC and NIA had asked the Nigerian Immigration to place him on a watch list and have him arrested at the point of entry or exit. Interpol too,” the source told SaharaReporters.
“While he managed to escape abroad with his connections and deep pocket, his passport expired while in Dubai. Now because of the restriction on his passport, he couldn’t renew it. He went to the Nigerian Embassy in Abu Dhabi, UAE and wanted to bribe his way to getting his passport renewed. After realising who he was, and the restrictions, they refused. He now used some contacts in Nigeria to have a fake passport done for him and sent to him to Dubai. This is what he used to renew his residency in Dubai and it is the same fake passport he used to move out of Dubai, to Niger Republic and then Nigeria.
“This is the fake passport. He claimed to have renewed it in Abu Dhabi. But all passports renewed in Abu Dhabi carry only one passport number. This means he renewed his here in Nigeria. And last two months, the new passport number was checked and it wasn’t on the data base of the immigration. And how can he have renewed it here when he was in Dubai at the time? He has insiders in the Immigration and they have been looking for a way to put him on the data base.
“In Abu Dhabi, once you show your old passport and they confirm it, they issue you with a new one and only your new passport number will be on the passport, unlike his that carries old passport number and new passport number. So he had it renewed illegally in Nigeria and it was sent to him over there.
“He entered Nigeria through Niger republic and has been moving with military driver and orderly.”
