ALLEGED N2.8BN FRAUD: Ex-minister, Sirika, awarded contracts to son-in-law’s unqualified company –EFCC witness

A prosection witness of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Musa Odiniyan, has alleged that former Aviation Minister, Hadi Sirika, awarded contracts to an unqualified company linked to his son-in-law.l, Jalal Sule Hamma, during his time in the ministry.

Odiniyan, who was the agency’s fifth witness in the resumed trial of Sirika on a six-count amended charge bordering on contract fraud to the tune of N2.8 billion at the Federal Capital Territory High Court on Monday, told Justice S. C. Oriji that the benefiting company, Al Buraq Global Investment, was not qualified for the contract awarded for the repairs of Katsina Airport by the ministry under the leadership of Sirika.

According to evidence tendered by the witness, Sirika used his position to confer an undue advantage upon Al Buraq Global Investment Limited whose owners are his daughter, Fatima Hadi Sirika and her husband, Hamma, by using his position to influence award of the contract for the Apron Extension at Katsina Airport for the sum of N1,498,300,750.

In a statement by the EFCC, the witness, during a cross-examination by counsel to the fourth defendant Michael Numa, SAN, reaffirmed his position in his evidence that the company could not have qualified for the bidding process or the contract award if open and competitive bidding was done.

“We use some criteria for determining the award of contracts for companies. I still maintain that if it was an open competitive bidding, the company Al Buraq may not have qualified,” the EFCC statement said, quoting Odiniyan.

“He also disclosed that the reason for which the contract was paid for was simply to ensure that it was completed and commissioned by former President Buhari before he left office.

“The reason for that payment was for the project to be implemented and commissioned before the exit of the former president. It was not for variation. The accounting officer sourced money from every relevant route to actualize the project. The N800million is a budgetary allowance to support the actualization of the project”.

Odiniyan, a retired director in the Procurement Department, Ministry of Aviation also informed the court that two of the ministry’s contracts awarded to Alburak and Enginos on the Apron and Terminal Building of Katsina Airport respectively, were captured under two different budget codes but appeared in a single code in the Procurement Department.

The witness also informed the court that Sirika’s son-in-law’s firm was paid a 100 percent fee for the project with the belief that it would be commissioned before the immediate past President Muhammadu Buhari, finished his term in 2023.

“The time of issuing the contract letter to the company (Al Buraq) was at the twilight of the Buhari administration. That was why the contract has a period of six months.

“The reason for the prompt payment for the contract was for it to be completed and inaugurated before the exit of the Buhari administration and not for the purpose of variation,” he said.

The judge adjourned the matter till March 10, 2025 for continuation of the cross-examination,” the agency said.

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