Investigators of the arms procurement scandal involving former National Security Adviser, Sambo Dasuki, and others, continue to make mind blowing disclosures of how billions of dollars meant for the purchase of military equipment to fight Boko Haram insurgents was mindlessly blown on frivolities.

Dasuki paid sums totalling billions of naira to people to secure the services of Marabouts, Muslim “holy men” who are believed to possess supernatural or spiritual powers to pray for former President Goodluck Jonathan to win the last presidential election.

A source close to the investigation said that one of the things that investigations show is that Dasuki was the manager of slush funds for the Jonathan presidency, particularly in the months leading to the last general elections, as he got presidential approvals to receive billions in naira and dollars, which he subsequently paid out to individuals for sometimes very strange things.

“Many of us still cannot wrap our heads around the mindless and reckless manner in which public funds were shared by some people,” said the source.

One of the strange items Dasuki has been found to have spent huge amounts on are Marabouts and one of his major conduits for channelling money to them was Sagir Bafarawa, the 35 year old son of former governor of Sokoto State, Attahiru Bafarawa, who allegedly received illegal payments of N4.6 billion from funds budgeted for the prosecution of the war against terror.

In accounting for the money he received, Sagir told investigators that he was contracted to employ the services of Marabouts, who came from Saudi Arabia and some North African countries, ostensibly to engage in spiritual exercises to ensure Jonathan’s victory in the last election.

It was learnt that Sagir was introduced to the former NSA by his father who wanted him to be given some contracts. However, the younger Bafarawa developed a chummy relationship with Dasuki and his family and was soon employed as a major conduit for the disbursement of funds for “a lot of jobs”, including seeking Marabouts all over the world to pray for Jonathan.

It was learnt that Sagir secured the services of several such spiritualists who were either brought to Nigeria to physically pray for Jonathan or stay in their country to undertake the necessary prayers and other rites.

The young man is said to have suddenly started living a life far more ostentatious than he lived as a privileged son of a governor soon after he met Dasuki. Investigators have traced some of the money he spent to expensive hotels across the world, the purchase of “wonders on wheels”, exotic mansions, one of which he allegedly built for one of Dasuki’s sons.

Our source said that Sagir’s father has distanced himself from him, insisting that he had no knowledge of the N4.6 billion his son received in illegal payments from Dasuki.

Bafarawa, it was gathered, was being pressured by some family friends to shield his son from prosecution by taking responsibility and claiming that he was the beneficiary of the funds and that he only used Sagir as a front.

However, the former governor is said to have angrily refused, maintaining that his son was a mature man who took his own decisions and that he never knew what was going on between him and Dasuki.

Our source disclosed that Bafarawa has, however, confessed  that he only  took N200 million from the former Bashir Yuguda, former minister of state for Finance, who is also in EFCC custody, and that he received the money in his capacity as the North West coordinator of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, presidential campaign.

He claimed that he shared the N200 million among the party’s state election planning and campaign committees in the North west.

Dasuki, the two Bafarawas, Yuguda, Shuaibu Salisu, former director of Finance and Administration in the NSA’s office, Mohammed Baba Kusa, a former Group Executive Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, and others are being questioned by EFCC operatives for the role they played in the alleged looting of funds meant for arms procurement to fight insurgents in the North east.

Dasuki allegedly received a total of $2.1 billion extra budgetary payments from the NNPC and another N40 billion from the Central Bank of Nigeria but spent the money on dubious contracts.

The former NSA is already being tried at a Federal High Court in Abuja for money laundering and illegal gun possession.