The family of Major-General Erema Akerejola has accused the Nigerian Army chief of stealing millions of dollars from funds allocated for soldiers’ welfare and equipment, diverting the loot to run his businesses and purchase personal assets abroad, Peoples Gazette can report.

In a blistering petition to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC), Mr Akerejola’s family, led by his cousin, retired Major Fimihan Akerejola, detailed how the general has been maintaining businesses and properties in the United States with money stolen from the military.

In his document, which anti-graft sources shared with The Gazette, Mr Akerejola, a former chairman of Ogori-Magongo Local Government Area in Kogi State, said Mr Akerejola, in 2017, established a private company, EMI Scanners Integrated Services Limited, named using the initials of his three children; Eren, male 19, Mebibora male 21, and Isovie, female 16, to secure contracts from the military before rerouting the proceeds to the U.S. to procure personal assets.

EMI Scanners with the registration number RC 1401640, which has Mr Akerejola’s father, Olugbemiron Akerejola, mother, Grace Akerejola, and maternal cousin, Bose Jangbadi, as directors, was repeatedly used as a front for siphoning military budgets, mostly through army logistics contracts, the petition said. 

Mr Akerejola further detailed how Major-General Akerejola used Toba Oduwaiye, the army chief’s first cousin, as a proxy to fraudulently secure small and large military contracts from several departments on his behalf. The Gazette couldn’t reach Mr Oduwaiye for comments.

In addition, the petition said Mrs Akerejola collaborated with her husband in the contract racketeering scheme by opening different shady companies in the United States and Nigeria, including LBCS LLC, business ID: 18030370, registered in Atlanta under her name, which serves as part of the couple’s various fronts to secure deals from the military.
Major-General Akerejola appeared to have devised the fraud while leading the logistics and procurement departments of the Nigerian Army, according to the petition.

The family said the couple channelled the ill-gotten money, mostly earmarked for military hardware procurement for soldiers fighting on active frontlines against terrorism and banditry across Nigeria, to purchase various properties, including an apartment with five beds and four baths that sits on 4,100 square feet of land at 11860 Old Station Pl, Alpharetta, GA, 30004-1491.

The large property, traced by The Gazette to the suburban Atlanta neighbourhood, is worth $1.38 million, according to asset documents reviewed by our reporters. Mr Akerejola failed to declare the assets in violation of the federal code of conduct for public officers, officials familiar with the matter said.

Mr Akerejola said other family members have faced threats from the military chief amid their fierce opposition to the use of stolen public funds to solve family matters.

Major-General Akerejola evaded several requests from The Gazette for comment on both the allegations and attempts to unleash violence on family members for speaking out. A spokesperson for the Nigerian Army declined to comment over the weekend, but the institution defended Major-General Akerejola in 2023 when he was first accused of acquiring foreign assets. While the army at the time argued that those assets were obtained by his wife, The Gazette’s findings contradicted that claim, as property documents showed that the military chief had bought the assets.

A spokesman for the ICPC acknowledged receipt of the petition and stated that its forceful allegations were being reviewed. Meanwhile, the EFCC could not immediately comment on an ongoing investigation.

This case marks the latest corruption scandal to hit the Nigerian military, following the sentencing of another top general, Umar Mohammed, a former group managing director of Nigerian Army Properties Limited (NAPL), to more than seven years’ imprisonment over a $3.3 million fraud in 2023.

The arguably most notorious case involving retired Nigerian Army Colonel and former National Security Adviser Sambo Dasuki for allegedly stealing more than N33.2 billion in funds allocated to purchase arms for soldiers in the fight against Boko Haram has remained unsolved after several years.

The gross mismanagement within the several branches of the Nigerian military meant that soldiers are often forced to endure gruesome conditions and largely depend on obsolete weapons while on various deployments across the West African nation.

Earlier this year, several soldiers lamented the delay in payment of their Scare Scheme Allowance, a vital component of their compensation package to ease financial burden for servicemembers, saying the crisis has been intensified since Lieutenant-General Olufemi Oluyede took over as the chief of army staff.