{"id":36574,"date":"2024-06-10T14:04:31","date_gmt":"2024-06-10T14:04:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nigerdeltanews.ng\/alleged-n2-8bn-fraud-efcc-opens-case-against-sirika-others\/"},"modified":"2024-06-10T14:04:31","modified_gmt":"2024-06-10T14:04:31","slug":"alleged-n2-8bn-fraud-efcc-opens-case-against-sirika-others","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nigerdeltanews.ng\/alleged-n2-8bn-fraud-efcc-opens-case-against-sirika-others\/","title":{"rendered":"Alleged N2.8bn Fraud: EFCC opens case against Sirika, others"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, on Monday in a Federal Capital Territory, FCT, High Court, Maitama opened its case of alleged N2.6 billion fraud against former Aviation Minister, Hadi Sirika and three others.<\/p>\n<p>The EFCC dragged Sirika alongside his daughter, Fatima; Jalal Sule Hamma and Al-Duraq Investment Limited, for abuse of office and contract fraud.<\/p>\n<p>They are standing trial before Justice Sylvanus Oriji on six counts.<\/p>\n<p>At the hearing, Azubuike Okorie, a subpoenaed witness of the EFCC testified as the first witness, PW1.<\/p>\n<p>He said he was a retired staff of the Federal Ministry of Aviation, Director, Procurement and Special Assistant to the Honorable Minister, Projects, 2022-2023) and Chairman, Project Implementation Committee.<\/p>\n<p>When led in evidence by the prosecution counsel, Rotimi Jacobs, SAN the witness said as Special Assistant, he was responsible for monitoring and evaluating projects.<\/p>\n<p>\u201d The Project Implementation Committee ensures the execution of projects.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>When asked about what he knew about the contract with Al-Duraq Global Investment by the Federal Ministry he said<\/p>\n<p>\u201d I was not involved in contracts and my committee is also not involved in awarding contracts.<\/p>\n<p>When asked to tell the court how he got the exhibit tagged \u201cList, 2021 Projects\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201d These documents were the ones the then Minister asked me to send to the Permanent Secretary and I did that by making photocopies.<\/p>\n<p>\u201d Let me answer it this way, these documents were given to me, I was not there when he wrote on it but I will assume, it is the minister(Sirika) that wrote in red pen because only ministers write in red pen. \u201d<\/p>\n<p>He said he saw N800 million against Al-Duraq Global Investment Limited and Apron Expansion and was aware the contract was given to the above company.<\/p>\n<p>He added that before a contract is awarded, the user\u2019s agency, in this case, Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), would have secured the land.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWell, the team of the Project Implementation Committee came in contact with Al-Duraq in Kastina when we went for project monitoring and implementation at Kastina airport.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen we got there, because we had a list of other contractors who were supposed to be on ground including Al-Duraq, we did not find any of them on site then.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The witness further said that as of the time he left civil service on May 23, 2023, to the best of his knowledge, the contract was not executed.<\/p>\n<p>When asked if he was aware that 100 per cent payment was made to the fourth defendant before he left office?<\/p>\n<p>He told the court that he is only aware of the 30 per cent mobilisation fee paid to them.<br \/>\nHe added that as Chairman, Project Implementation Committee, he was not involved in payments.<\/p>\n<p>\u201d As a former director, what I know is that payments were made in stages,\u201d he said<br \/>\nJacobs told the court that, that was all for the witness.<\/p>\n<p>Chief Kanu Agabi, SAN counsel for Sirika (1st defendant) told the court that he was just served with the papers today and needed time to go through it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201d I beg let\u2019s come back tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mahmoud Magaji, SAN for Fatima (2nd defendant) Michael Numa, SAN for Al-Duraq Investment allied with him.<\/p>\n<p>The prosecution counsel, Jacobs, did not object to their prayer.<\/p>\n<p>Justice Oriji then adjourned until Tuesday for cross-examination and continuation of trial.<\/p>\n<p>Alleged N2.8bn Fraud: EFCC opens case against Sirika, others<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, on Monday in a Federal Capital Territory, FCT, High Court, Maitama opened its&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":36575,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17488,1611,15,9891],"tags":[890,272,6485,1614,1615,17489,180,1379,838,9892],"class_list":["post-36574","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alleged-n2-8bn-fraud","category-efcc","category-news","category-sirika","tag-against","tag-alleged","tag-case","tag-efcc","tag-fraud","tag-n2-8bn","tag-news","tag-opens","tag-others","tag-sirika"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Alleged N2.8bn Fraud: EFCC opens case against Sirika, others - Niger Delta News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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