Tasila, the daughter of Zambia’s former president, Edgar Lungu, has lost a bid to appeal the forfeiture of her K8 million farm in Sinda district which was seized by the Economic and Financial Crimes Court (EFCC) on allegations that she got the farm illegally when her father was the head of state.

The court had ordered the property’s forfeiture on September 17, labelling it as “tainted” but Tasila had argued that her father had financially supported the farm’s development, but the court dismissed her claims, citing an absence of financial records or bank statements to support them.

Despite her assertion that the farm was legally acquired and her appeal held merit, the EFCC maintained its stance.

In their ruling, the three justices, Judges Susan Wanjelani, Pixie Yangailo, and Vincent Siloka stated that Tasila’s case lacked any prospect of success.

The judges emphasized that any appeal must show a clear prospect of success, which they found lacking in her case.

The court also rejected arguments suggesting that the appeal raised matters of public importance, referencing established legal precedent, insisting that an appeal must address issues with broad public impact, not personal disputes, to be deemed significant.

Last week, the EFCC had equally rejected a bid by former First Lady Esther Lungu to appeal a ruling ordering the forfeiture of her state lodge flats, valued at K66 million.

In a decision delivered on November 7, 2024, the EFCC panel, consisting of Judges Pixie Yangailo, Ian Mabbolobbolo and Vincent Siloka, found her case “unconvincing and without merit.”

A report released by GovSpend, a civic tech platform that tracks and analyses the spendings of the Nigerian government, has revealed that not less than N19.43bn was spent on the maintenance and operations of the Presidential Air Fleet from July 2023 to September 2024.

The report which was made public on Monday shows that such payouts by the federal government for 2024 amounted to N13.55bn, representing 66 per cent of the allocations for the fleet in the 2024 fiscal year.

According to Govspend, most of the disbursements were labelled ‘Forex Transit Funds,’ which are typically funds allocated for foreign exchange requirements to facilitate international transactions and engagements.

However in the context of the Presidential Fleet such funds are used to cover expenses related to operations outside the country, including fuel purchases, maintenance or services in foreign currencies, the report said.

It stated that in July 2023, N1.52bn was disbursed in two tranches of N846m and N675m for ‘Presidential air fleet forex transit funds’, while the following month, N3.1bn was disbursed in three tranches of N388m, N2bn, and N713m for the same item.

Parts of the report reads:

“In November of that year, N1.26bn was released to the Presidential Air Fleet naira transit account. The first overhead for 2024 came in March, where N1.27bn were disbursed twice, amounting to N2.54bn. The transit account received N6.35bn in April, N4.97bn in May and N210m in July.

“August saw the highest frequency of transactions, with N5.60bn released in six separate disbursements. Although these transactions were not clearly labelled, the monies were paid into the Presidential Air Fleet naira transit account, including the N35m transfer made in September.

“In late April, the transit account received N5.08bn; this came around y the same time the President was on a 6 two-nation tour to the Netherlands and Saudi Arabia.

“Although Tinubu arrived in the Netherlands in a state-owned Gulfstream AeroSpace 550 Jet, the aircraft could not proceed to Saudi Arabia due to unspecified technical problems. He reportedly continued his journey on a chartered private plane.

“At the time, the President’s Boeing 737 business jet was undergoing maintenance. It was later replaced with an Airbus A330 purchased for $100m in August through service-wide votes.

“The presidential fixed-wing fleet includes a Gulfstream G500, two Falcon 7Xs, a Hawker 4000, and a Challenger 605. Three of the seven fixed-wings are reportedly unserviceable. Meanwhile, the rotor-wing fleet includes two Agusta 139s and two Agusta 101s, all operated by the Nigerian Air Force but supervised by the Office of the National Security Adviser.

“In April 2023, three jets were put up for sale, but there were no specifics on which. However, efforts to sell one of the Dassault Falcon 7x and the Hawker 4000 in October 2016 stalled when a potential buyer reduced their initial offer from $24m to $11m.

“Since 2017, budgetary allocations for the fleet have shown a growing trend, with one exception in 2020. The allocation for the fleet increased from N4.37bn in 2017 to N20.52bn in 2024, showing a 370 per cent rise in running costs.

“In 2018, the fleet’s budget rose significantly by 66.13 per cent to N7.26bn, driven by a substantial increase in capital project allocations while maintaining similar levels for recurrent costs. This upward trajectory continued into 2019, slightly increasing the total allocation to N7.30bn.

“The exception came in 2020, when the budget dropped by nearly seven per cent to N6.79bn, primarily due to decreased overhead costs, a reflection of the global economic impacts of lockdowns and disruptions in operations.By 2021, however, the budget surged dramatically to N12.55bn—a record increase of 84.83 per cent from the previous year.

“In 2022, maintenance expenses for each aircraft ranged from $1.5m to $4.5m annually. The 2022, 2023 and 2024 appropriation acts earmarked N12.48bn, N13.07bn and N20.52bn respectively,” the report noted.