Court adjourns corruption case against Lulu, others to May 16

FORMER Director General of the National Sports Commission (NSC), Patrick Ekeji, yesterday told a Federal High Court in Abuja that the NSC had little information on the affairs of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) except those disclosed by the NFF.

Testifying in the corruption case against former Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) President, Sani Lulu Abdulahi, his former vice president, Amaze Uchegbulam and Taiwo Ogunjobi, who was the federation’s technical committee chairman, Ekeji also revealed that he saw the minutes of the NFF’s meeting only once during his tenure as the NSC director general.

Also charged in the corruption case by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is the former NFF General Secretary, Bolaji Ojo-Oba.

During his cross examination on various issues involving the NSC and the NFF by counsel to Lulu, Sunday Ibrahim Ameh, Ekeji, a prosecuting witness, told the court that as the supervising agency, the commission only knew what the NFF wanted it to know even though the Federal Government provided the bulk of funding for the federation’s activities.

He shocked the court when he revealed that the NSC received and approved proposals for the NFF to purchase of two Marco Polo buses for the national teams from Messrs.

Ekene Dili Chukwu Nigeria Limited, but the NFF went ahead to buy the buses from another company at a price higher than what was contained in the approved proposal. He said, “A request was put up to the NSC by the NFF for the purchase of two Marco Polo buses. I do not know why the buses were not purchased from Ekene Dili Chukwu Nigeria Limited as requested by the NFF and approved by the NSC.”

Reacting to Ekeji’s testimony, EFCC, counsel, Titus Olasukan Asaola, noted that the accused contravened the provisions of the Procurement Act when purchasing the two buses, stressing that despite the fact that the buses were purchased from a different firm outside what was proposed and approved by the NSC, the NFF bought them at prices far higher than what was approved in the proposal.

He argued that the case has been established against the accused, claiming that rather than spending the approved N50 million for the buses, they procured the buses at the price of N99 million without following the proper procedure of the procurement act. He also noted that the buses did not meet the specification as approved by the NSC.

In his own reaction, counsel to Amanze Uchegbulam and Taiwo Ogunjobi, Akin Olujimi, who regretted that the judiciary workers’ strike contributed to the delay in the case, argued that his clients followed all the procedure as provided by the Procurement Act in the purchase of the buses.

After listening to the arguments, the presiding judge, Justice S.C Chukwu adjourned the matter to May 16 to allow the EFCC counsel cross examine the accused persons. But Ekeji will continue his testimony today.