By Ikenna Omeje
The Federal Government has reportedly seized a private jet belonging to a former Minister of Petroleum, Dan Etete, over his involvement in corruption charges relating to the $1.1 billion for Oil Mining Lease 245.
According to Financial Uncovered, the government had been on the trail of the Bombardier 6000 jet, with tail number M-MYNA, since landed in Montréal-Trudeau International Airport in Canada on May 29, Babatunde Johnson, whose firm- Johnson & Johnson Solicitors was appointed by the Nigerian government in 2016 to recover assets from the deal, told the news medium.
The jet had just flown from Dubai via Shannon Airport in the west of Ireland, and it is not known whether any passengers were on board.
It was reported that on Saturday, a court in the province of Quebec granted a seizure order for the aircraft, and was served on Tibit Ltd, the company which owns it.
The company, an anonymously owned company incorporated in the British Virgin Islands, is said to have been given June 9 to appeal the court order.
“Our investigators in Dubai then noticed that the jet, having been grounded in Dubai for so long, suddenly did some test flights and even went up to a cruising altitude for a short while. It seemed like they were testing whether they could fly somewhere,” he was quoted to have said.
“The jet then took off from Al Maktoum International Airport, Dubai, mid-morning on Friday. We did not know the destination at that point.
“We now suspected that it was being flown to Canada for a major service, pending a possible sale.
“We had just a few hours to get a legal team in place on the ground there in Canada to file the injunction. It was 3am in Nigeria when I made a statement to the judge via video link,” Johnson said.
The Federal Government had in January, at a Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court, in Gwagwalada, through an ex-parte application filled by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), obtained a warrant of arrest against Etete