Fayose diverted N860m poultry fund, EFCC tells court...

CREDIT: PUNCH NIGERIA The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission on Monday presented some documents to Justice Adamu Hobon of Federal High Court, Ado-Ekiti, to prove that a former governor of Ekiti State, Mr. Ayo Fayose, diverted N860m meant for the Ekiti State poultry projects during his tenure.
The commission in its submission before the court gave an account of how Fayose allegedly diverted N860m meant for the state poultry projects on Monday.
An official of EFCC, Mr. Abubakar Madaki, while giving evidence before the court, alleged that Feyi, wife of the former governor; his mother; and a former deputy governor of the state, Mrs. Abiodun Olujimi, were beneficiaries of the funds.
Madaki, who led the team that investigated the graft, said he discovered during investigation that only four out of the 20 poultry farms were actually ready to start business at the time.
He said, “Some of the farms were seen with either three or four pens instead of five or six pens as indicated in the document by the state government and the Biological Concepts Nigeria Limited, which handled the contract.”
The EFCC official noted that the agreement was to construct a poultry farm each at four designated areas with headquarters in Afao, Fayose’s hometown.
Madaki also alleged that there were neither power generating sets nor boreholes at the poultry sites as claimed.
He said following the findings by the EFCC team and a team from the Federal Ministry of Works, some people including the Chairman, Biological Concepts Nigeria Limited, Mr. Gbenga James, and some government officials were invited for questioning.
Madaki added that further investigation showed that the money was diverted by the accused person, his aides and family members.
The witness, who tendered several documents through the counsel for the commission, Mr. Adebisi Adeniyi, alleged that part of the funds meant for the project was diverted for the construction of Fayose’s house in Iyaganku, Ibadan.
He said, “There was also falsification of figure in one of the documents that was used to purchase a car for the accused person’s mother.
“Among the document was the acknowledgement of $50,000 by a former deputy governor of the state, Mrs. Olujimi.
“The chairman of Biological Concepts confirmed that some funds were used to build the house of the accused person at Iyaganku Ibadan.
“He also confirmed transferring N156m of the fund for the purchase of battery cage for his (Biological Concepts chairman) own farm.”
He added that a document showed how several millions of naira was used as “PR” in the transaction, adding that another sum of N300m was released for the construction of the poultry project at Afao.
He said, “The architect, who designed the Afao project, confirmed that he was given only N73m for the project.”
Documents presented to the court included a voluntary statement of the accused person written in his own hand-writing, petitions and documents containing the names of the alleged beneficiaries of money for the public relations.
Others are cheque stubs, reports from the Federal Ministry of Works and acknowledgment letter confirming receipt of $50,000 by Olujimi.
Also included is a building plan designed by Grid Associates for the private home of the accused person in Ibadan and a copy of the agreement dated September 24 between Ekiti State Government and Biological Concept Limited.
All the documents were admitted as exhibits by Hobon. The judge adjourned the case till December 3 (today) for further hearing, to enable the prosecution to present more documents in evidence to support the case.