An Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) witness on Monday told an Abuja High Court that a petition written by a coalition of aviation employees led to the investigation of the former Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika, and others.
The EFCC charged Sirika alongside his daughter, son-in-law and a company, Al Buraq Global Investment Limited, with contract fraud and abuse of office.
The former minister, according to the EFCC, abused his office as minister by conferring unfair advantage upon Al Buraq Global Investment Limited, whose alter ego are said to be his daughter and son-in-law, by using his position to influence the award to them, the contract for the apron extension at Katsina Airport for the sum of N1,498,300,750.
This, the prosecution said, is 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.
At the resumed hearing in the case before Justice Sylvanus Oriji, the 12th prosecution witness (PW12), Adekunle Odofin, told the court that EFCC received a petition in 2021.
“A coalition of aviation employees, under the aegis of Coalition of Aviation Sector Employees for Transparency and Good Governance, wrote a petition against the management of the Federal Ministry of Aviation.
“In the petition, the coalition alleged that the ministry received N14.7 billion for the rehabilitation and remodelling of airports across the country and that the money was siphoned by some greedy individuals in the ministry.
“The petition was assigned to the Chairman of the Monitoring Team II for investigation,” he said.
Odofin said that one Mark Adebayo was invited by the anti-corruption commission to shed more light on the content of the petition, which he (Adebayo) wrote.
He told the court that in January 2024, the EFCC set up a committee made up of himself as chairman and four others to review and investigate the allegations contained in the petition.
The investigating team, according to him, wrote letters to Zenith Bank, Guarantee Trust Bank, Jaiz Bank and Access Bank,.
Letters, he said, were also sent to the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), Federal Ministry of Aviation, Bureau of Public Procurement, Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), Nigerian Nuclear Regulatory Agency (NNRA) and Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC).
According to him, the Ministry of Aviation was requested to furnish the team with details of all contracts awarded by it to Al Buraq Global Investment Limited, as well as all payments made to the company by the ministry in respect of contracts awarded to it.
“We also wrote the BPP requesting for details made to the Bureau by the Federal Ministry of Aviation on no objection for the selective tendering method of appropriation in respect of 2021 remaining projects, 2020 appropriation and 2018 appropriation respectively.
“We also requested BPP to furnish EFCC with details of responses to the aforementioned requests from the Federal Ministry of Aviation,” the PW12 told the court.
Odofin informed the court that responses from the organisations were received and analysed by his team, as a result, the former minister was invited by EFCC on April 23, 2024.
“Consequent upon the analysis, the first defendant (Sirika) was invited on April 23, 2024 where he was shown a copy of the petition. He read it and understood the same. He then volunteered to make a statement in the presence of his lawyers,” the witness told the court.
He said that Sirika’s daughter, Fatima, had earlier been invited by the team on February 26, 2024, while her husband, Hamman Jalal Sule, was invited the following day, February 27, 2024.
According to the PW12, both defendants were shown the petition, which they read, understood and later volunteered their respective statements in company with their lawyers.
