A prosecution witness said on Monday that former minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika, awarded, while in office, the contract for the repairs of Katsina Airport to unqualified companies.
Musa Odiniyan, a retired director in the Procurement Department of the Ministry of Aviation, said this in his testimony as the fifth prosecution witness (PW5) in Mr Sidika’s corruption trial at the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court in Maitama, Abuja.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is prosecuting Mr Sirika and three others, including her daughter Fatima Hadi Sirika, on six amended counts of contract fraud involving N2.8 billion.
The rest of the defendants are Fatima’s husband, Jalal Hamma, and Al Buraq Global Investment.
Mr Odiniyan, the fifth prosecution witness, identified Al Buraq Global Investment, in which Mr Sidika’s daughter and son-in-law had interest, as the firm that was awarded the airport repairs contract without qualifying for it.
Under cross-examination by the fourth defendant’s lawyer, Michael Numa, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), the witness maintained that the company would not have qualified if a transparent and competitive bidding process had been conducted.
“We use some criteria for determining the award of contracts for companies. I still maintain that if it was an open competitive bidding, the company Al Buraq may not have qualified,” he said.
The Nation reported that the witness explained that the aviation ministry paid 100 per cent of the contract sum to ensure that it was completed and inaugurated by former President Buhari before he left office.
The reason for that payment was for the project to be implemented and commissioned before the exit of the former president.
“It was not for variation. The accounting officer sourced money from every relevant route to actualise the project. The N800 million is a budgetary allowance to support the actualisation of the project,” he said.
He also informed the court that two of the ministry’s contracts awarded to Alburak and Enginos on the Apron and Terminal Building of Katsina Airport respectively, were captured under two different budget codes but appeared in a single code in the Procurement Department
Mr Odiniyan, who retired from the ministry two years ago, admitted he could not recall all details of the contracts when pressed for specifics by Mr Numa.
However, he provided insights into the procurement process in line with civil service regulations and the Public Procurement Act.
Defence seeks to fault witness
Meanwhile, in an attempt to contradict Mr Odiniyan’s testimony about the minister’s roles in awards of contracts, the defence team tendered statements made by the witness to the EFCC and records from a separate criminal case involving Mr Sirika and his brother, Ahmad Sirika, before a another FCT High Court judge, Suleiman Belgore.
Earlier on Friday, Mr Odiniyan testified that Mr Sirika gave the final approval for the contract before the Ministerial Tenders Board (MTB) could issue the letter of award.
For the letter of award to be issued, the minister had to give the final approval. There were projects he did not approve, and letters of award were not issued, meaning they were not implemented,” he said.
He said that no contract could be executed without ministerial approval.
Without approval, you cannot execute a contract. The minister actually approved the implementation of the MTB’s recommendations,” he added.
The trial judge, Sylvanus Oriji adjourned the case till 10 March, for the continuation of the cross-examination.
Arrest, charges
In May 2024, EFCC arrested Mr Sirika on charges of fraudulent contract awards amounting to billions of naira.
Mr Sirika, who served as aviation minister during former President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration, was accused of abusing his office by awarding contracts to a company in which his daughter and her husband had interests.
The case has six counts brought against him and his daughter, son-in-law and their company, Al-Duraq Investment Limited.
The charges alleged that Mr Sirika used his “position to confer unfair advantage upon Al Buraq Global Investment Limited, whose alter ego, Fatima Hadi Sirika and Jalal Sule Hamma, are your daughter and son-in-law, respectively, by using your position to influence the award to them, the contract for the Apron Extension at Katsina Airport for the sum of N1,498,300,750”.
The prosecution also alleged that Fatima and her husband held indirect private interests in the contract for the Apron Extension at Katsina Airport, valued at nearly N1.5 billion—an action said to violate Section 12 of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) Act.
The anti-graft agency also alleged that Fatima, an employee of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC), and Mr Hamma, a staff member of the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), were in possession of N1.3 billion—allegedly traced to Sirika as proceeds of criminal conduct in the form of gratification.
All defendants have pleaded not guilty to the charges.