How NAF covered up death of a foreign mercenary pilot – Witness

Francesca Iwambe, Abuja

A former Chief of Administration Staff at the Nigerian Air Force headquarters, Air Vice Marshal Mohammed Alkali Mamu, has revealed how the force covered up the death of a foreign mercenary pilot, Captain Chup Vasyl.

Mamu, who made these revelations while testifying before Justice Salisu Garba of the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja said that late Cpt Vasyl was one of the foreign mercenary pilots, who disguised as instructors, and engaged by the Federal Government to combat Boko Haram terrorists.

Mamu was arraigned before the court by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), on a four count charge bordering on bribery.

Led in evidence by his counsel, Joseph Daudu, SAN, Mamu told the court that the introduction of the mercenaries assisted the Nigerian Air Force to commence night bombardments of Boko Haram with devastating effects.

He added however that nearly three months into the bombardments, one of the Ukrainian fighter pilots, Captain Vasyl, crashed while on night combat and died.

He said, “I was ordered by the Chief of Air Staff to inform Abubakar that there was need to make payment to the family of the late pilot as the insurance cover was not fully processed at the time of the accident. I consequently wired the sum of $100,000 to the family of late Cpt Vasyl”.

Mamu also told the court that he was ordered by the Chief of Air Staff to get permission from the family of the late Cpt Vasyl for the remains to be cremated.

This according to him became necessary following that fact that there was practically nothing left of the remains.
Mamu told the court that with the permission of the family and in view of the sensitive nature of the cause of death, the leadership of Nigerian Air Force obtained certificate of death and classified the cause of death as a result of car crash.

When asked by his lawyer to clarify on what happened between the Air Force and Ukrainian embassy, Mamu said he was ordered by the Chief of Air Staff to contact the Ukrainian embassy in Abuja and he presented the certificate of death at the embassy.

“We were later invited by the Ukrainian acting ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. Mycolo Salastov to a ceremony to pay last respect to the late Cpt Vasyl. The remains of the late Cpt Vasyl was placed in a small box and sealed diplomatically by the acting ambassador,” he said.

He added that the Chief of Air Staff thereafter ordered him to move the two surviving pilots who were traumatised by the death of their colleague from the war zone in the North East to Abuja before their departure to Ukraine.

At this junction, the informed the court that going ahead with the evidence will expose Nigeria’s contravention of the United Nation’s Charter of armed conflicts especially Resolution 44/34.

He also said that it may lead to sanctions against Nigeria, including embargoes on sales of arms. It is for these reasons the court was being pleaded with to continue in chamber,” he said, before adding that the introduction of the mercenaries was a game changer for the Nigerian Air Force.

Justice Garba at this point asked the EFCC counsel, Sylvanus Tahir if he still wanted the trial to continue in open court giving the sensitive nature of the evidence as it regards to national security.

However, Tahir who averred that the issues were coming to him as a surprise added that the evidence can go ahead in open court.

Following Tahir response, Justice Garba ordered the witness to continue with his evidence.

Going ahead with the evidence, the witness informed the court that he was in Ukraine when this covert and sensitive military assignment was given to one Hima Abubakar of Societe D’Equipments Internationaux Nigeria Limited (the company EFCC said he received the bribe from) by the NSA.

According to him, the office of the NSA decided to assist the Nigerian Air Force by engaging these mercenaries due to “the terrible performance of the armed forces at the height of the war against Boko Haram towards the 2nd and 3rd quarters of 2014.”

Abubakar identified three mercenary fighter pilots, soldiers of fortune and veterans of many wars who were willing to take up this job.

He said he was ordered by the Chief of Air Staff to liaise with Abubakar to facilitate the medical examination and process entry visas into Nigeria for the three Ukrainian mercenary pilots that were coming to fly the MI35P helicopters.

He added that due to the undercover nature of the assignments, transactions and documentation were mainly “in pseudo or disguised form, including monies and properties which form part of this charge against me.”

The trial has been adjourned to November 6, 2017.