The Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission has extended its probe to 18 officials at the Office of the
National Security Adviser, Saturday PUNCH has learnt.
This is just as the committee set up by
the Federal Government to probe contracts awarded by the Office of the
National Security Adviser from 2011 to 2015 indicted the 18 officials
and other aides to the immediate past National Security Adviser, Sambo
Dasuki.
A reliable source told one of our
correspondents that some of the officials of the ONSA were believed to
have awarded fictitious contracts to themselves through proxies in a bid
to divert public funds.
The source, however, did not state how much was involved.
The panel had indicted a former Chairman
of the House of Representatives Committee on Security and Intelligence,
Mr. Bello Matawalle; a former Special Adviser to ex-President Goodluck
Jonathan on New Partnership for Africa’s Development, Dr. Tunji
Olagunju; a former Principal General Staff Officer at the ONSA,
Brig.-Gen A.S Mormoni-Bashir; a Director at the ONSA, Ambassador Clement
Layiwola; a former aide to the NSA, Col. Bello Fadile (retd.); and a
former Director of Finance and Administration at the ONSA, Alhaji
Shuaibu Salisu, among others.
However, the source said some of the 18 DSS officials might have connived with the principal suspects to perpetrate fraud.
It was also gathered that the EFCC was
conducting fresh probes of some firms and individuals for non-payment of
Value Added Tax and other taxes on the contracts they were awarded at
the NSA office.
The Presidency had, on Friday, said 300
individuals and firms were indicted over contracts awarded by the ONSA
between 2011 and 2015.
The firms were indicted by a committee
set up by the Federal Government to probe contracts. The companies
include Julius Berger PLC and Daar Investment and Holdings Limited.
When contacted to react to the statement
by the Presidency on the partial completion of some projects awarded to
Julius Berger, two officials of the construction giant told one of our
correspondents that they had not been authorised by their bosses to
react to the issue.
They both pleaded not to have their
names in print, but promised to provide the company’s position once work
resumes by next week.
However, efforts to get the Head, Media
Relations Office, Julius Berger, Mr. Moses Duku, were not successful as
he neither answered calls made to his mobile phone nor replied a text
message sent to him, up till the time of filing this report.
Also, several calls and SMS to the
Managing Director of Daar Investments and Holdings Limited, Mr. Raymond
Dokpesi jr, for response were not replied.
The Senior Special Assistant to the
President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, had, in a statement on
Thursday, said the committee on the latest probe was different from the
committee investigating the Defence Arms and Equipment Procurement.
He had said over N7bn had been recovered so far from the indicted companies and individuals.
Shehu, however, did not give the breakdown of how much each company or individual returned.
He added that N41bn was to be returned
by the indicted companies, adding that the EFCC had been ordered to
determine whether another N75bn should be recovered from some of the
companies for unexecuted or partially-executed contracts.
According to him, the committee
discovered that one of the indicted companies, Societe D’Equipment
International, was overpaid to the tune of 7.9m Euros and $7.09m (about
N3.15bn).
He added that the committee discovered that there was a total disregard
for salient provisions of the Public Procurement Act in the award of
contracts by ONSA.
source:punch
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