A retired Air Vice Marshal, Tony Omenyi, has been sentenced to seven years in prison for receiving N136 million bribe from Nigerian Air force, (NAF) contractors.
Justice Nnamdi Dimgba of the Federal High Court Abuja gave the judgement on Thursday.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had slammed three-count charge bordering on abuse of office and money laundering on Mr Omenyi whom they said received N136 million kick back from Syrius Technologies and Sky Experts Limited, two contractors of the Nigeria Air Force.
Omenyi pleaded not guilty to the charges.
In the ruling on Thursday, Justice Dimgba said, “The court did not believe that the evidence given by Omenyi in his defence was credible. The defence was a sham.
“For example the N15 million he said he helped her pay for refueling of two aircraft, he should have received a receipt from those who refuelled but no receipt or invoice was tendered in court by the defence.”
He sentenced the convict to seven years in prison on each of the three counts preferred against him to run concurrently with effect from Thursday.
The judge also ordered that the N62 million recovered from him by the EFCC be forfeited to the Federal Government.
The judge further ordered that the convict’s company, which was the second defendant in the suit, be wound up having being used to perpetrate economic fraud.
