EFCC Wanted Ex-Navy Accounts Director Seen Moving Freely in Kaduna Despite N2bn Fraud Case
A former Director of Accounts of the Nigerian Navy, Rear Admiral Tahir Yusuf (Rtd), who was declared wanted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) over alleged N2 billion fraud, has been sighted moving freely in Kaduna State.
Yusuf was seen this week in a residential area of Kaduna – the same city where the EFCC had sealed several properties linked to him. A fresh video obtained by SaharaReporters on October 11, 2026, showed the retired officer in a light-blue kaftan standing beside a silver Mercedes-Benz, with his hands behind his back.
This is the second time he has been spotted in public despite being on the EFCC wanted list and the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) watchlist. Months earlier, he was sighted in Abuja moving with security aides.
Sources said a woman in a brown hijab was seen filming him while a man in military camouflage, said to be a naval officer, stood near the gate. Yusuf was also alleged to have assaulted a resident who attempted to film him.
The development has raised fresh concerns about the effectiveness of the EFCC wanted list and whether the retired senior officer is enjoying protection from arrest.
The EFCC had in October 2022 told a Federal High Court in Abuja that Yusuf was on the run and could not be reached after nine counts were filed against him on March 16, 2022. Counsel to the EFCC, Cosmas Obeta Ugwu, told the court that all efforts to locate his whereabouts had proved unsuccessful.
Yusuf is being prosecuted for allegedly stealing about N2 billion while in office as Director of Navy Accounts.
According to investigators, the EFCC received intelligence on unusual transfers from the Nigerian Navy’s official account and the Defence Intelligence Agency personnel account to personal accounts belonging to Yusuf and another retired officer, Babajide Oguntade.
The funds were allegedly moved into a joint account operated under the name Bitmas Enterprise. The charge sheet detailed transfers including N135.4 million on March 14, 2012, N197.8 million, N148 million, N334 million, N152 million and N20 million, all lodged in Bitmas Enterprises account No. 1001439871 at Zenith Bank, as well as $300,000 allegedly diverted from a Navy account meant for furniture for Navy Secondary School, Okura.
Investigators also said they uncovered seven other bank accounts belonging solely to Yusuf in Zenith Bank Plc and Skye Bank Plc (now Polaris Bank).
Following an ex-parte order obtained by EFCC counsel Elizabeth Alabi from Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu, the accounts were frozen. In 2020, Justice Ojukwu ordered permanent forfeiture to the Federal Government of N392,695,857.87, plus $91,955.38 and £15,050 found in his domiciliary accounts.
EFCC operatives subsequently sealed properties in Zaria and Kaduna allegedly bought with proceeds of the fraud, including Emerald Hotels and Suites in Zaria, two uncompleted buildings in Zaria and Kaduna, and Bitmas Bakery Limited in Zaria.
Yusuf had fled to Dubai, UAE in 2018 after he was invited by the EFCC. The anti-graft agency later wrote to the Comptroller-General of Immigration to place him on its watchlist.
However, SaharaReporters exclusively reported in October 2021 that Yusuf had sneaked back into Nigeria through Niger Republic using allegedly fake travel documents procured with help of compromised officials, and has since been shuttling between Abuja and Kaduna without being re-arrested.
