Thursday, 28th March 2024
To guardian.ng
Search

Audu forged major contract documents,says witness

By Abosede Musari, Abuja
09 April 2015   |   12:54 am
A witness in the trial of former Governor of Kogi State, Prince Abubakar Audu, has revealed that documents used for the award of major contracts under the administration of the accused former governor were forged.
Audu

Prince Abubakar Audu

A witness in the trial of former Governor of Kogi State, Prince Abubakar Audu, has revealed that documents used for the award of major contracts under the administration of the accused former governor were forged.

The prosecution witness, Jabaru Olatunji, said before Justice A.O Adeniyi of a Federal Capital Territory(FCT) High Court, Abuja, last Thursday, that several documents on the award of contracts to major contractors between 2000 and 2003 during Audu’s tenure as governor, were forged.

Though a staff of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), Olatunji became a witness in the case being prosecuted by the EFCC because he was part of a joint task force involving five security agencies that investigated the petition against Audu.

He alleged that Audu used his office to siphon Kogi State government funds. According to a statement made available to The Guardian by the EFCC yesterday, Olatunji claimed that the 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 provided them the 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 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.

0 Comments