ABUJA, Nigeria – The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has secured a final forfeiture order for a Hawker private jet linked to a massive corruption, bribery, and money laundering scandal involving the multi-billion Naira Maiduguri Emergency Power Project (MEPP).
Okay News reports that Justice Emeka Nwite of the Federal High Court in Maitama, Abuja, delivered the landmark ruling on Monday, May 18, 2026. The order permanently forfeits the aircraft—a Hawker 125, model 800XP with registration number 5N-AMK—to the Federal Government, following a successful application by EFCC prosecution counsel, Iheanacho Ekele, SAN.
The private jet was claimed by Valiente Jet Limited, a firm owned by Alhaji Abdulsalam Mustapha Kachallah, the former Chairman of the Borno State Rural Electrification Board. Dismissing the company’s defense, Justice Nwite ruled that the interested party utterly failed to show sufficient cause or offer concrete evidence detailing the lawful origin of the funds used to purchase the luxury asset. “The disguised manner through which the aircraft was acquired using the name of a Bureau De Change operator who denied knowledge of the nature of the transaction further lent credence to the unlawfulness of the entire transaction,” the judge held, justifying the court’s decision to pierce the corporate veil.
The legal breakthrough is the culmination of a deep-dive investigation into contracts awarded in 2021 by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) to stabilize the insurgency-damaged energy infrastructure in Borno State. The project contracts were valued at a staggering $114.1 million and ₦23.1 billion. According to an affidavit deposed by EFCC investigator Aminu Abdullahi, Kachallah abused his dual role as rural electrification boss and steering committee member of the MEPP to orchestrate an insider-trading scheme.
Investigators revealed that Kachallah sold highly privileged, confidential bidding information to China Machinery Engineering Company (CMEC) in exchange for massive financial inducements. Armed with this stolen data, CMEC successfully secured three major project contracts worth $52.1 million and ₦20.2 billion. To launder the kickbacks, a sum of $2,070,000 was routed from CMEC into the bank account of a local Bureau De Change operator, Afuwa Integrated Services Limited, under the guise of fake invoices for subcontracted services. The BDC operator later denied any knowledge of the scheme, confirming that the funds were immediately layered and wired out to a Brazilian account to purchase the corporate jet. Following the final forfeiture order, the asset is expected to be immediately managed by the federal recovery pool.
