The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) secured the final forfeiture of a Hawker 125-800XP private jet linked to fraud, money laundering, and corruption on Monday, May 18, 2026.
The ruling was delivered by Justice Emeka Nwite of the Federal High Court in Abuja, permanently forfeiting the aircraft to the Federal Government of Nigeria. The private jet is tied directly to a massive corruption probe involving the Maiduguri Emergency Power Project (MEPP), an initiative under the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC).
Investigators revealed that three contracts worth $52,120,172 and ₦20,213,956,953 were awarded to China Machinery Engineering Corporation (CMEC). Under the instructions of a suspect, Abdulsalam Mustapha Kachallah, a sum of $2,070,000 was diverted from the project funds into a Bureau De Change (BDC) operator’s account (Afuwa Integrated Services Limited) using forged invoices.
The money was subsequently routed through a Brazilian account to purchase the jet from a Brazilian company.
An interested party representing the shell company Valiente Jet Limited attempted to claim ownership of the aircraft. However, Justice Nwite dismissed their application, stating that they failed to show any evidence proving a lawful origin of the funds used to purchase the jet.
The court concluded that using a BDC operator who denied any knowledge of the actual underlying transaction served as a deliberate tactic to disguise the illicit nature of the purchase.
According to official updates from the EFCC Official X Account, this asset recovery marks a major milestone in the commission’s continuous crackdown on financial crimes linked to multi-billion Naira public infrastructure contracts.
