Press Release
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
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