Lanre Adewole and Taiwo Adisa, Abuja
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
THE three members of the House of Representatives, who were fingered in the alleged N6 billion fraud in the Rural Electrification Agency (REA), on Monday, surrendered themselves to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
They are: Chairman, House Committee on Power, Honourable Ndudi Godwin Elumelu; his deputy, Honourable Muhammed Jibo, and chairman, House Committee on Rural Development, Honourable Paulinus Igwe.
They are being detained by the commission which has concluded plans to charge them to court this week alongside others who were arrested and detained over the matter.
Commission’s spokesperson, Mr. Femi Babafemi, confirmed that the trio were being detained by the commission after they gave themselves up on Monday.
Following the commission’s inability to get them arrested all through last week, moves had been commenced to get the court to declare them wanted before they eventually surrendered to the commission on Monday.
Those already arrested over the alleged fraud are the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Power, Dr. Aliyu Abdullahi, the chairman of Senate Committee on Power, Senator Nicholas Yahaya Ugbane, one of the contractors that, allegedly, handled the projects, Chief Emeka Ohiagbena, and the Managing Director of the Rural Electrification Agency, Sam Gakpe.
All of them, according to Babafemi, would face a joint trial expected to commence this week. The fraud was said to have been perpetrated between November and December 2008, when the arrested permanent secretary was the acting minister of power.
It was learnt that the Grid Extension and Solar projects were used in perpetrating the alleged fraud. The Grid Extension Project was said to have gulped N3.5 billion while the solar project was reportedly contracted out at N1.8 billion.
It was also gathered that the N6 billion project was not in the budget sent to the National Assembly by the executive arm and was reportedly built into it by the lawmakers on the power committees in the two chambers, with the alleged active connivance of the top officials of the Rural Electrification Agency and the Ministry of Power.
The contracts for the two projects were said to have been awarded without due process by the agency to 113 companies, with 45 companies working on the solar project and Chief Ohiagbena’s nine companies, allegedly, getting 21 contracts.
By November 28, 2008, the money for the contracts was said to have been collected from the Budget Office, with 15 per cent of the entire contracts sum, allegedly, paid into the contractors’ accounts.
In order to beat the deadline for the return of the unspent budgetary allocations, those behind the alleged scam, reportedly, paid the remaining 85 per cent of the contracts sum, even when the contractors had not commenced work at all.
The affected contractors were said to have started withdrawing the money paid into their accounts before the anti-graft commission got wind of the alleged scam and froze the accounts of the contractors.
Nigerian Tribune also gathered that those arrested in connection with the alleged N1.7 billion contract fraud in the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) would be charged to court this week.
Babafemi confirmed that one of the indicted directors, Mulkat Mufnang, who allegedly bolted, when the operatives of the commission came calling, had been arrested by the commission.
Others arrested in connection with the alleged scam included former Executive Secretary of the Universal Basic Education Commission, Professor Gidado Tahir, Mrs. Hadiza Kura (Director, Financial and Accounts), Mr. Andrew Ekpunobi (Director, Physical Planning) and Mike Awole, an accountant.
Also arrested was an American, Alex Cozman of InterMarket Nigeria Limited, who, reportedly, handled the controversial contract. Nigerian Tribune further gathered that the contract was awarded in November 2004 to InterMarket for the sum of N850 per plastic chair despite an order of the Federal Government banning the importation of plastic chairs.
A source further added that despite the contract being awarded without due process, UBEC still went ahead to pay another N45.1 million to the contractor for the movement of the plastic chairs to the country even which the main contract sum had covered such expenses.
It was revealed that another N16.5 million was paid the contractor for the clearance of the chairs, even when it was stated in the main contract that the contractor would bear such costs.
In another development, the EFCC has commenced moves to confiscate the assets of former governor of Abia State, Orji Uzor Kalu, over alleged money laundering, using the process of law.
Consequently, the commission has slammed a fresh 83-count charge of money laundering on him, accusing him of using public funds to purchase landed property in choice cities of the world.
The commission had earlier preferred a 107-count charge of money laundering and official corruption against him, alleging that he stole about N1.7 billion belonging to the state while he was governor between 1999 and 2007.
The former governor lost in his bid to stop the trial last week. The commission has now amended the charge, bringing the total to 190, with the fresh 83 counts said to be the product of fresh evidence that he used the allegedly laundered funds to buy landed property.
The properties, according to the commission, had been traced to Potomac in the United States of America, United Kingdom and Lagos. A commission source put the total number of the properties at 15, adding that the anti-graft agency would be asking the court for an order to get Kalu to forfeit all the properties to the Federal Government.
Apart from the landed properties, assets linked to him or, allegedly, being held in trust for him by proxies, are also said to be targeted by the anti-corruption agency for confiscation.
The former governor was equally accused of not declaring the said assets while in office. When the Nigerian Tribune sought to know if the Code of Conduct Tribunal would not be a more appropriate body to handle the assets trial, the commission noted that since it was proceeds of alleged money laundering that were used in purchasing the said property, the case was still within the purview of the commission.
Justice Adamu Bello, in his ruling on a preliminary objection by Kalu to his trial held that Kalu must face prosecution. The former governor said he would challenge the ruling.
http://odili.net/news/source/2009/may/12/602.html
No comments:
Post a Comment