The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) will today arraign former Aviation Minister, Hadi Sirika, his daughter, Fatima, and two others before Justice Sylvanus Oriji of an Abuja High Court in Maitama.

The Commission will arraign Sirika, a minister in the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari, on a six amended charges.

He will be arraigned alongside three others, including his daughter; Jalal Hamma and Al-Duraq Investment Ltd, for abuse of office to the tune of N2.7 billion. Part of the allegation against the former minister includes fraudulent contracts awarded by the ministry under his watch.

The anti-graft agency had since April 23 detained the former minister. Sirika was invited by the Abuja Zonal Command of the Commission on the alleged contract malfeasance and was promptly interrogated and detained at the Formella Street, Wuse 2 Zonal office of the Commission.

“The former minister (Sirika) was invited for questioning by investigators handling the alleged contract frauds under his watch in the ministry.

He honoured the invitation and has been detained as I am talking with you,” a source in the EFCC who pleaded anonymity told NAN. The source also said that EFCC had been investigating the alleged contract frauds while the minister was in office, and he had even met with investigators before he was detained.

In December 2023, President Bola Tinubu dismissed several senior aviation officials due to widespread fraud in the ministry.

Those affected included managing director of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN); Kabir Yusuf Mohammed, managing director of the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) Tayib Adetunji Odunowo, director-general of the Nigerian Safety Investigation Bureau (NSIB) Akinola Olateru,  director-general of the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NIMET) Mansur Bako Matazu and rector of the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology (NCAT) Alkali Mahmud Modibbo.

According to the statement, Nuhu, the director-general of the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), was suspended from office so that the EFCC could conduct a thorough investigation into his activities and those of other senior agency officials.

On June 15, 2023, that EFCC summoned ex-minister Sirika over the N3 billion Nigeria Air project.

The former minister on an Arise Television programme on Sunday, June 11 2023, argued that of the N5 billion budgeted for the project take-off, only N3 billion was released, contrary to the speculation that the Aviation ministry had spent N85 billion on the failed Nigeria Air project.

The bulk of the expended funds, according to Sirika, was channelled into consultancies, salaries, and administrative costs associated with setting up the national carrier.

Both the Senate and the House of Representatives aviation committees had criticised the unveiling of the Nigeria Air aircraft, with the latter labelling it a “fraud.”