17 February 2016, Abuja – The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, has begun to beam its searchlight into the high level of fraud in project management that has been going on in the Niger Delta Commission over the years.
The commission has already arrested the director in charge of project management, Engr. Roberts A. Obioha, who is believed to have been privy to the many cases of contract-splitting that has made the commission to fritter away hundreds of billions of taxpayers’ money without anything to show for it.
The commission has been enmeshed in a series of contract-splitting in breach of the Public Procurement Act, leaving it with huge debts amounting to about N2 trillion.
After being arrested and questioned by EFCC operatives for contract-splitting, Mr. Obioha allegedly offered the sum of N150,000 to the Head of the EFCC Zonal Office in Port Harcourt, Mr. Ishaq Salihu, to buy ‘recharge card’. He was promptly arrested and detained and would soon be charged to court for offering bribe to the operative.
“The suspect who is under investigation with the commission was invited to write a statement in a case of contract splitting and over- inflation.
He was quizzed and offered administrative bail, but when he reported the next day to perfect his bail, he went to the Zonal Head’s office and offered him the sum of N150,000 to buy recharge card,”
EFCC Spokesman, Wilson Uwujaren, said on Tuesday. The suspect claimed that he offered the said money to Salihu in order to build a good relationship with him.
- Vanguard