Abdullahi Bashir Haske, a Nigerian oil and aviation entrepreneur married to a daughter of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, has become the central figure in one of Nigeria’s most closely watched anti-corruption sagas of the past year a case that has drawn in the leadership of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) and sent the businessman fleeing the country while under investigation by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
Who Is Bashir Haske?
Born on December 13, 1987, in Yola, Adamawa State, Haske founded and heads AA&R Investment Group, a diversified conglomerate with interests spanning oil and gas, aviation, agriculture, logistics, ICT and marine services. He also owns the energy firm at the centre of the scandal, and his business empire reportedly holds interests in OML 148, an onshore oil block in the Niger Delta, alongside aviation services run directly and through affiliate companies. Beyond business, he built a public profile as a philanthropist and industry figure before the EFCC probe upended that image.
Detention and the First Signs of Trouble
Haske was first reportedly detained by the EFCC in July 2025, as investigators expanded a corruption probe touching money laundering, shell companies, and questionable oil contracts connected to NNPCL and private jet operations. Sources said the financial trail led back to contracts allegedly awarded through NNPC EnServe Ltd, a subsidiary operating under NNPCL’s Upstream Directorate, with investigators tracing large sums moved through shell companies, aviation operators and offshore accounts.
His proximity to NNPCL Group Chief Executive Bayo Ojulari drew added scrutiny, Haske was also linked to a lavish NNPCL management retreat in Kigali, Rwanda, where five private jets were allegedly chartered to fly top executives to the event.
Accounts Frozen – The Money Trail
The financial scale of the case became clear through a series of court-ordered freezes. In August 2025, the EFCC froze a $15 million bank account belonging to Haske, a move that came after he allegedly breached his bail conditions and left the country.
Investigators say that figure was only part of a much larger picture. EFCC sources indicated that more than $56 million was traced to accounts linked to Haske within a three-month period alone, tied to suspicious financial flows, bulk cash transfers, and questionable contracts linked to NNPC EnServe Ltd.
The net widened further in the autumn. On September 22, 2025, a Federal High Court in Abuja, presided over by Justice Musa Liman, ordered Fidelity Bank to freeze an account belonging to Mars Aviation Ltd, a company linked to Haske, as the EFCC widened its probe into alleged sham oil-sector contracts. The court heard that millions of dollars had been paid to Mars Aviation in installments by NNPCL, and that the funds needed to be preserved to prevent them from being moved while the investigation continued. An EFCC investigator told the court in an affidavit that the funds could otherwise be dissipated and frustrate the probe, a submission the judge agreed had merit.
The $46.7 Million Contracts Defence
Haske has not been silent in the face of the allegations. In an affidavit, the CEO of Mars Aviation admitted the company had received NNPC contracts worth $46.7 million, but insisted these had been approved between 2018 and 2022, long before Ojulari became NNPCL’s chief executive. Haske explained that Mars Aviation provided private jet and helicopter charter services for executive travel, and said he had supplied 14-seater and 50-seater jets at various times to ferry NNPC’s top executives.
The EFCC has rejected that account outright. In a response filed before a federal judge, the Commission said preliminary investigations found no evidence that the company ever owned a 14-seater or 50-seater aircraft, and alleged instead that the contract was awarded to Mars Aviation as a means of siphoning public funds from NNPCL’s coffers. Haske has separately sued the EFCC over what he describes as unlawful arrest and abuse of his human rights.
Declared Wanted – And a Legal Fight Over the Move
Matters escalated sharply on August 21, 2025. The EFCC formally declared Haske wanted over alleged criminal conspiracy and money laundering, publishing his photograph and asking members of the public with information on his whereabouts to contact the nearest police station or any EFCC office nationwide. The notice, signed by EFCC spokesperson Dele Oyewale, described Haske as 38 years old, with his last known addresses listed as No. 6 Mosley Road, Ikoyi, and 952/953 Idejo Street, Victoria Island, both in Lagos.
The declaration was not without controversy. His legal team pushed back hard, arguing the move was procedurally improper. His lawyer, Nkemakolam Okoro of the firm of Dr. M.O. Ubani, SAN, said the EFCC’s declaration was premature and procedurally flawed given a pending application before the Federal High Court in Abuja seeking to review the arrest warrant against Haske. Okoro noted that Haske had previously responded to an EFCC invitation and cooperated with the agency, and had even submitted medical documentation over health issues that arose during that engagement. His legal team argued that the court’s issuance of the warrant on August 8 did not, on its own, justify a public wanted declaration without first exhausting the appropriate legal channels.
On the Run
Despite the legal wrangling, Haske was already believed to be out of the country by the time the wanted notice went up. SaharaReporters learned that Haske had earlier been questioned and detained by authorities, who seized one of his passports to prevent him fleeing, only for him to escape the country using a second passport. A source close to the investigation described the EFCC as having seized one travel document, only for Haske to leave the country on another.
His flight abroad has complicated the manhunt. With Haske reportedly now outside Nigeria, Interpol indicated it would not act on the EFCC’s alert, stressing that it does not target individuals in politically sensitive cases and would only issue a Red Notice if doing so complied with the organisation’s own rules and constitution.
A Widening Scandal, A Vanishing Trail
The case has become entangled with broader questions about NNPCL’s leadership. EFCC documents reviewed by investigators allege that NNPC officials used Haske’s company accounts to launder funds, with Haske posing as a recipient of payment for services rendered to NNPC when the money was, in fact, being moved on the corporation’s behalf, an allegation that has fuelled pressure on Ojulari less than five months into his tenure as NNPCL’s chief executive.
Yet even as the investigation has deepened, transparency around the case appears to have receded. As of November 2025, the EFCC’s own wanted-persons webpage for Haske had been taken down from the Commission’s official website, returning a “page not found” error, with no public clarification issued by the agency over the removal.
Where the Case Stands
Months on, Haske remains at large, his network of companies, AA&R Investment Group and Mars Aviation among them, still under the EFCC’s financial microscope, with tens of millions of dollars in frozen or contested funds and a paper trail of NNPCL contracts that investigators say tell a very different story from the one his lawyers are presenting in court. Whether he ever returns to Nigeria to face trial, or whether the case is fought out in absentia through frozen accounts and forfeiture applications, remains an open question, one that continues to reverberate through NNPCL’s leadership and Nigeria’s wider anti-corruption fight.
Source: ReportsNG
