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B N W: Biafra Nigeria World News |
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Officials allege N186.6m fraud in Ondo Stadium project
IT was yet another heart-rending revelation yesterday as an Ondo panel was told how a consultancy firm for a new stadium project was paid N186.6 million fee without any evidence of payment.
The panel was raised by the Olusegun Agagu's administration to probe certain public expenditures during the administration of Chief Adebayo Adefarati.
The Justice Williams Akintoroye-led panel had earlier been told that N16 million of the N206 million-contract sum was paid to the project manager of a ghost company, Messrs Gonent Consortium Nigeria Limited.
Testifying before the commission yesterday, the accountant of the Sports Council, Chief Ayokunle Fagbola, expressed regrets that the council was used "as garbage in, garbage out" to siphon the huge amount.
"I was not given receipt by the company that collected the money and when I asked for the receipt, my then general manager, Mr. Kola Oguntibeju told me that the receipt would be given to me later," he said.
Fagbola told the panel that the issue of the receipt was between the cashier and the general manager, adding that because he could not get the receipt then for the payment, he was queried by the internal auditor leading to his suspension from work.
When the chairman of the commission asked him what he did when the auditor discovered the fraud, Fagbola said the general manager approved N6,000 for him to trace the consultant to Lagos but he could not be traced through the address he (consultant) gave to the council.
His words: "My Lord, I was told that the consultant had vacated his office in Lagos. It was then that I discovered that the man had bolted with our money. But I plead that your lordship gives me a week to trace him and collect the receipt from him.
Fagbola further explained that the general manager assured the cashier that the contractor would come back with the receipt when the cashier asked for evidence of payment of the amount.
"I did not know anything at all about the project proper until the payment of the consultant and it was rather unfortunate that we had been used to siphon the money into private pockets," he said.
The General Manager, Oguntibeju, who also gave his evidence said that it was true that the money (N186.6 million) was paid without any evidence to show for it, adding that he was aware of the contract but the payment of the consultant was from above.
His words: "My Lord, the payment of Messrs Gonent Consortium Nigeria Limited of N186.6 million was beyond my power and I had no objection to the payment.
"My chairman should be held responsible for the lapses on the project.
"I was not carried along from the beginning of the payment. I only knew about the payment.
"My Lord, it was true that there was no record to back up the payment of the amount and there was no receipt for it. I want to request that you give me one week to look for the man (consultant) in Lagos so as to collect the receipt."
The panel also discovered that a drawing had been made in 1980 by Tom Ikimi and Eti Aro Consultancy Firm in respect of the proposed new stadium complex.
The Acting General Manager of the Sports Council, Mr. Wale Olateru-Olagbegi, disclosed this while testifying before the commission, saying that the drawing was delivered to the council in June 1980 when he was the Director of Sports.
Also, the former Director of Planning, Research and Statistics, Mr. Banjo Oke Abayomi, said there was no geo-physical test carried out at the new stadium complex in which about N4 million was committed, saying that Geo-Tech Nigeria Limited was never commissioned.
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