By EDITH NWAPI

An EFCC witness on Tuesday told an Abuja High Court that former Aviation Minister, Hadi Sirika approved a 100 per cent payment for a contract awarded to a company owned by his daughter and son-in-law.

Adekunle Adekunle, told the court that Sirika approved the payment to Al Buraq Global Investment Limited.

Sirika is charged alongside his daughter, Fatima and son-in-law Hamma Sule and a company, Al Buraq Global Investment Limited.

They are standing trial before Justice Sylvanus Oriji on a six-count charge bordering on abuse of office and contract fraud.

The former minister, according to EFCC, abused his office as minister by conferring unfair advantage upon Al Buraq Global Investment Limited by using his position to influence the award of the contract for the apron extension at Katsina Airport for the sum of N1,498,300,750.

This, the prosecution stated, was contrary to Sections 12 and 19 of the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act 2000 and Section 17 (b) of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (Establishment) Act, 2004 as well as Section 315 of the Penal Code Act, Cap 532 Acts of the Federal Capital Territory and punishable under the same sections.

The defendants, however, pleaded not guilty to the charge brought against them.

Adekunle further told the court that the former minister split the contract into two.

He added, one for terminal building and apron expansion at Katsina airport with his influence as the minister to award the terminal building to Enginos Nigeria Limited and apron expansion to Al Buraq Global Investment.

According to Odofin, Enginos belonged to a brother of the former minister, Hamad, while Al Buraq belonged to his daughter and son-in-law, which the former minister was in full knowledge of.

?Investigation further revealed that upon the award of the apron expansion to the fourth defendant in this case (Al Buraq) on Nov 14, 2022, the Federal Ministry of Aviation paid N1.3billion with some fractions after tax to the Zenith Bank account of the fourth defendant.

?The contract sum paid represents 100 per cent payment of the contract awarded to the fourth defendant.

?The 100 per cent payment of contract of apron expansion awarded to the fourth defendant was paid based on approval of the first defendant (Sirika) as a sitting minister in the ministry (of Aviation) during the period under review,? the PW12 told the court? he said.

Led in his evidence-in-chief by the prosecution counsel, Rotimi Jacobs SAN, Odofin told the court that the former minister used his position to split the single contract into two.

He added in order to avoid going back to the Bureau for Public Procurement (BPP) and Federal Executive Council (FEC) for approval.

He said that Enginos was awarded the terminal building at the cost of N1.3billion with some fractions.

He added while Al Buraq was awarded the apron expansion for N1.4billion with some fraction, both of which the witness said were within the threshold of approval by the former minister.

Odofin told the court that investigation further revealed that both the second and third defendants were husband and wife.

He added having got married on Dec 25, 2020 and that both are public servants working with Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) and Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) respectively.

According to him, investigation revealed that the couple owned 500,000 shares each in Al Buraq at the point of its incorporation by the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) on June 17, 2021.

The witness added, while Fatima was made the company secretary until February, 2024 when EFCC started investigation on the contract awarded.

He Informed that both husband and wife were persons of significant control of Al Buraq and were Signatories to the account of the company with Zenith Bank, meaning that any one of them could sign for the company.

?Upon receipt of the payment for the contract (apron expansion), N182million was transferred on different dates out of the contract sum paid to the fourth defendant to the personal accord of the third defendant (Jalal) domiciled with Zenith Bank.

?Out of this N182million, N110million was further transferred to his fixed deposit account also domiciled with Zenith Bank. In the fixed deposit account, N100million is currently in the account.

?There is an interim injunction on the N100million fixed deposit account of the third defendant? he told the court.

The witness then narrated how the second and third defendants transferred various sums of money to different accounts belonging to individuals and corporate entities.

These he said included Trimak Engineering Services Limited, which git N500million transferred to it from the contract sum paid to Al Buraq.

?This N500miliion was never utilised for the contract of apron expansion at Katsina airport but utilised to execute contracts awarded to Trimak by other agencies,? the witness said.

He added that Al Buraq did not execute the contract awarded to it, adding that, ?out of the total sum paid to the fourth defendant, the sum of N549million with some fractions is still pending in the account of the fourth defendant and there is also an interim order on it.?

Meanwhile, Justice Oriji ordered for trial-within-trial to ascertain the voluntariness of the statements made by the second and third defendants to EFCC.

This is in compliance with the Provisions of Section 15(4) and 17(2) of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA), 2015 in taking the statements.

The judge made the order following objections raised by all counsel for the defendants while the prosecution sought to tender the statements through the PW12.

He then adjourned until Oct 27for commencement of trial-within-trial. (NAN)

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