EFCC Press Release
Justice A.O Adeniyi
of a
Federal Capital Territory High Court sitting in Abuja
has fixed Wednesday April 15 for further hearing in the on going trial of a
former governor of Kogi
State, Prince Abubakar
Audu.
Audu and one Alfa Ibn
Mustapha, a former Director General of the Directorate of Rural Development,
Kogi State, are being prosecuted by the Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission, EFCC for offences bordering on criminal breach of trust and
misappropriation of public funds to the tune of N10, 965,837,040 (Ten billion,
Nine Hundred and Sixty five Million, Eight Hundred and Thirty Seven Thousand,
Forty Naira) by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.
On Thursday, April 2,
2015 when the case came
up for hearing, Jabaru Olatunji, a prosecution witness told the court that
several documents
on the award of contracts to major contractors between 2000 and 2003 during
Audu’s tenure as governor, were forged.
Olatunji, a staff of the
Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, ICPC, who
is also the eighth prosecution witness, Pw8, while being led in evidence by
counsel to the EFCC, Rotimi Jacobs, SAN, told the court that he was part of a joint
task force involving five security agencies that investigated the petition against
Audu, alleging that he used his office to siphon Kogi State government funds.
He said his team
visited Kogi State in the course of the
investigation.
When asked about
their findings during the said visit, Olatunji told the court that, at the
office of the Accountant General of the State, they met one Dr. Shuaibu who
made available documents detailing all the allocations to the State Government
from May 2000 to April 2003.
According to him, the
team proceeded to the Ministry of Works where they met one Dr. Ocheni who
furnished them with records of all the allocations, contracts awarded and
payments made.
Analyses of these documents,
according to the witness, revealed that three companies were major contractors.
The companies are: Leoflench Nigeria Limited, Bulkom Nigeria Limited, Aresanmi
Technical Industrial Limited and Pet-Tim Nigeria Limited.
“My Lord,
investigations revealed that Leoflinch Nigeria Limited’s documents were forged
by the second accused”, Olatunji said.
Furthermore, Olatunji
told the court that based on this revelation, the team invited some key
officers. One of them, Kayode Ayodele, a geologist, said that, he knew nothing
about most of the contracts and that most of the documents and vouchers
shown to him were forged. “My Lord, he even denied signing most of the
certificate of completion shown to him’’, the witness added.
Olatunji further
stated that, “same was the statement of one Engineer Adejo Yusuf who went ahead
to separate the falsified record from the real one”.
In the course of
investigation, Olatunji stated that, one Mr. Olajire, an Accountant with the
Kogi State Government was invited, and he confirmed that most of the
documents were forged and that he was ordered to approve most of the contracts.
He also told the
court that, investigation also revealed that several millions were withdrawn by
the Accountant and handed over to the second accused.
Upon this discovery,
Olatunji stated that, the second accused and the Director of Leoflench were
invited for a meeting where Mustapha (the second accused) admitted that he acted
on the instruction of Prince Audu.
“My Lord, Mustapha
confessed that, Audu directed him to forge documents and to raise drafts from
the First Bank account of the Directorate of Rural Development, DRD and same
were paid into Bulkom’s Diamond Bank account” Olatunji affirmed.
“Investigation and
search conducted at the Bulkoms’ showed that the first accused actually had
business with the company,” he further stated.
The documents of
contract agreement and cheques were presented to the court and admitted in
evidence as P156 and P157 respectively.
It would be recalled that
one Uchenna Agagara from Diamond Bank had testified that, from May 29,
2001 to July 23, 2003 about N926m was lodged in Bulkom Nigeria Limited’s Diamond
bank account, mostly through cheques and drafts of an old generation bank
Wilson Uwujaren
Head, Media &
Publicity
7th April,
2015
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