Jonah Ogunniyi Otunla, a former Accountant General of the Federation (AGF), died on Monday, a few days after his 69th birthday on June 12.

Otunla, however, had a multi-billion-naira corruption case with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) at the time unnamed family members told reporters that he died in his sleep.

Colonel Bello Fadile, an aide to Sambo Dasuki, a former National Security Adviser, was named as Otunla’s accomplice. He is regarded as a retired military official and human rights lawyer.

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The EFCC alleged that Otunla, serving as AGF between 2011 and 2015, oversaw the diversion of N24 billion meant for disengaged staff of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) after it folded up in 2013.

In a 2021 judgment, Inyang Ekwo, a federal high court judge, heard that there was an agreement between EFCC boss Ibrahim Magu and Otunla that stated that the EFCC would stop prosecuting the ex-AGF for the alleged offences committed while he was in office between 2011 and 2015 if he returned the missing funds.

Otunla confirmed he returned the N6.4 billion, so the court held that the agreement be honoured, and the EFCC could not prosecute Otunla.

The EFCC continued to secure more portions of the diverted N24 billion.

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Otunla was also connected to the N775 million and three properties in Abuja that the EFCC seized in November 2022.

The Court of Appeal overturned the 2021 Federal High Court judgment and ordered the EFCC to resume the prosecution of Otunla in February 2023. A three-member panel of the higher Appeal Court held that Otunla failed to prove that there was a non-prosecution agreement between him and the EFCC.

Fadile recently granted journalists an interview, but the March interview was about his imprisonment during Sani Abacha’s regime.

Of the stolen N24 billion, about N17 billion remains unaccounted for.