Barring any last minutes change of mind, some of those who served in
the government of Dr Kayode Fayemi as well as Permanent Secretaries
and top civil servants in the Ekiti State Civil Service will be quests
of the Nigeria Police Special Fraud Unit (SFU), Lagos in the next few
days.
Loading ...A highly placed security source disclosed that the SFU commenced
investigation of an alleged multi-billion naira road contracts scam,
involving Fayemi’s Commissioner for Works, Mr Sola Adebayo, Chief of
Staff, Yemi Adaramodu and some top officials of the Ministry early
2014.
It was gathered that the investigation was sequel to a petition
written by a group; The Ekiti Highlandres, dated July 3, 2013 and
signed by Chief Akerele Samuel and Mr. Faparusi Segun, National
Coordinator and Secretary of the group respectively.
The source said that the Police anti-corruption unit stayed action on
the investigation on the order of the Inspector General of Police
(IGP), who opined that arresting officials of the Fayemi-led
government then could be termed as witch-hunting and a plot to weaken
the All Progressives Congress (APC) chances in the June 21, 2014
governorship election, which was eventually won by Governor Ayodele
Fayose of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
In the petition written to the Inspector General of Police, The Ekiti
Highlandres attached all road projects executed by the Fayemi
administration, the length, the contractors name, date awarded,
contractor sum, percentage of contract execution, among other relevant
information.
It was alleged that the contracts for roads rehabilitation, involving
cutting of failed portion, filling with laterite and stone base and
asphalt overlay, with no construction of subsoil drainages, new pipe
culverts and box culverts were awarded at highly inflated cost, with
some of the roads costing as high N50 million per kilometre.
Some of the contracts listed were rehabilitation of 10.7km Ado-Afao
awarded to Kallen Tech Nig. Ltd at N538, 638,704.26, construction of
19km Ikere-Igbara Odo road awarded tp Palmyra Construction Company
Limited at N494,815,781, rehabilitation of 3.6km Ijigbo-Baptist
College (Ilawe road) awarded at N788,038,599.60 and rehabilitation of
less than 3km Fajuyi-University Teaching Hospital Road awarded at
N447,544,063.50
Others were rehabilitation of 13km Old Garrage-Ado-Ikere road awarded
to Plycon Nig Ltd at N2, 369,833,077.15, construction of 0.8km Old
Garrage-Ojumose (Ado-Ekiti) road awarded to Heartland Nig. Ltd at
N866, 872,873.13 and rehabilitation of Ojumose-Basiri/Police Hq (Iyin
road) also awarded to Heartland Nig. Ltd at N1,488,054,374.92.
Sources revealed that Kallen Tech Nig. Ltd which got the N538,
638,704.26 contract to rehabilitate Ado-Afao road fronted for a
notable leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC) based in Lagos
while one of the companies that got the contracts fronted for Fayemi’s
Chief of Staff.
“All necessary preliminary investigations have been done and the
revelations are indeed shocking!
“Records of movement of funds in and out of the bank accounts of the
affected contractors have been secured and politicians, who the
contractors fronted for are already known,” the source revealed.
Apart from alleged inflation of the contracts and payment for
non-existing projects, the petition also alleged that the road
contracts were awarded without following due process.
“There were supposed to be an advertisement placed in at least two
national newspapers requesting for Expression Of Interest (EOI) from
eligible bidders. This was not done. If done, such newspaper should be
produced,” the petition stated.
According to a report in the Nigerian Tribune, Special Assistant to
the State governor on Public Communications and New Media, Lere
Olayinka, when contacted said “even though Governor Fayose has made it
clear that he was not going to waste his time and the State resources,
probing Fayemi’s government, the governor won’t stop anti-graft
agencies from doing their job.
He said the government was aware of several complaints of financial
malpractices made to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission
(EFCC), the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences
Commission (ICPC) and the Police against the immediate government of
Dr Fayemi by concerned citizens of Ekiti State.”
