The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) yesterday quizzed a former Governor of Borno State, Ali Modu Sheriff over the ownership of an aircraft impounded by the agency on January 16 last year.
The aircraft was impounded at the Maiduguri International Airport.
But the Dornier aircraft 328 linked with the former governor resumed operations without EFCC’s clearance.
The plane marked N805PG and 5NBMH was allegedly linked with Skybird Air, which is being managed by one Mr. Samuel Ayodele.
A source, who spoke in confidence, said: “The ex-Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) chairman was grilled by a team of detectives on the ownership of the aircraft. The interaction was in line with the open-ended investigation of the tenure of Sheriff as the governor of Borno State.
“We are working on clues that the aircraft was allegedly bought with looted funds from the state.
“He responded to our question and denied having any ownership link with the aircraft . We will still interact with him again on Tuesday(today).
Ayodele last year told detectives that the aircraft was originally with the defunct IRS Airlines, which he bought with a loan of about N948million from a bank.
The source quoted Ayodele as saying: “I bought the liability from the bank and took over the aircraft because IRS was not able to pay back the loan.
“It is a clean business. Since I graduated from school, I have been working in the aviation sector.”